iiornia  C' 

Dnal        THE   LIBRARY  OF 

ity          USEFUL  STORIES 


THE  STORY  OF 


ECLIPSES 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT  LOS  ANGELES 


THE 
LIBRARY   OF  USEFUL  STORIES 


THE  TOTAL  ECLIPSE  OF  THE  SUN,  Scot.  7,  1858  (Liat's). 


THE 

STORY  OF   ECLIPSES 


BY 

GEORGE  F.  CHAMBERS,  F.R.A.S. 

OF   THE   INNER  TEMPLE,    BARRISTER-AT-LAW 

AUTHOR   OF   THE   STORY   OF   THE    SOLAR   SYSTEM, 

THE   STORY   OF   THE   STARS, 
A  HANDBOOK  OF  DESCRIPTIVE  ASTRONOMY,  ETC. 


NEW   YORK   AND    LONDON 

D.    APPLETON    AND    COMPANY 

1912 


COPYRIGHT,  1896, 1902, 1909, 
BY  D.   APPLETON   AND   COMPANY. 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


Sciences 
Ubrary 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  PACK 

I.  INTRODUCTION g 

II.  GENERAL  IDEAS n 

III.  THE  SAROS  AND  THE  PERIODICITY  OF  ECLIPSES  17 

IV.  MISCELLANEOUS  THEORETICAL  MATTERS  CON- 

NECTED   WITH    ECLIPSES    OF   THE    SUN 

(CHIEFLY; 30 

V.  WHAT  is  OBSERVED   DURING   THE   EARLIER 

STAGKL  OF  AN  ECLIPSE  OF  THE  SUN       .      35 
The  Moon's  Shadow  and  the  Darkness  it  causes  .        36 

Shadow  Bands 40 

The  Approach  of  Totality  ....        43 

The  Darkness  of  Totality 46 

Meteorological  and  other  Effects          ...        46 
VI.  WHAT    is    OBSERVED    DURING   THE    TOTAL 

PHASE  OF  AN  ECLIPSE  OF  THE  SUN         .      49 

Baily's  Beads 49 

The  Corona      .......        53 

VII.  WHAT    is    OBSERVED    AFTER     THE    TOTAL 
PHASE  OF  AN  ECLIPSE  OF  THE  SUN  is  AT 

AN  END 63 

VIII.  ECLIPSES  OF  THE  SUN   MENTIONED   IN   HIS- 
TORY—CHINESE   65 

IX.  ARE  ECLIPSES  ALLUDED  TO  IN  THE  BIBLE?  .      74 
X.  ECLIPSES  MENTIONED  IN  HISTORY— CLASSICAL      92 
XI.  ECLIPSES     MENTIONED     IN     HISTORY  —  THE 
CHRISTIAN  ERA  TO   THE   NORMAN   CON- 
QUEST   109 

XII.  ECLIPSES   MENTIONED   IN   HISTORY — MEDIE- 
VAL AND  MODERN 124 

XIII.  ECLIPSES    MENTIONED    IN     HISTORY— NINE- 

TEENTH CENTURY 138 

XIV.  THE  ELECTRIC  TELEGRAPH   AS   APPLIED   TO 

ECLIPSES  OF  THE  SUN       ....     152 
XV.  ECLIPSES    OF    THE    MOON— GENERAL    PRIN- 
CIPLES   158 


206757 


6  THE  STORY   OF  ECLIPSES. 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XVI.  ECLIPSES  OF  THE  MOON  MENTIONED  IN  HIS- 
TORY    168 

XVII.  CATALOGUES  OF   ECLIPSES  :  AND  THEIR  CAL- 
CULATION     185 

XVIII.  STRANGE  ECLIPSE  CUSTOMS     .        .        .        .190 

XIX.  ECLIPSES  IN  SHAKESPEARE  AND  THE  POETS  .    194 

XX.  BRIEF  HINTS  TO  OBSERVERS  OF  ECLIPSES     .     198 

XXI.  TRANSITS  AND  OCCULTATIONS         .  .200 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS. 


FIGURE  PAGE 

1.  Total  Eclipse  of  the  Sun,  Sept.  7,  1858.    Frontispiece 

2.  Theory  of  Total  Eclipse  of  the  Sun  ....  14 

3.  Theory  of  an  Annular  Eclipse  of  the  Sun ...  15 

4.  Annular  Eclipse  of  the  Sun 15 

5.  Partial  Eclipse  of  the  Sun 16 

6.  Shadow  Bands 41 

7.  Rays  of  Light  seen  during  Totality  ....  42 

8.  Brushes  of  Light 49 

9.  "  Baily's   Beads,"   Four   Stages,  at   Brief  Intervals 

(May  15,  1836) 50 

10.  Corona  of  1882.     Sun-spot  Maximum        ...  58 

11.  Corona  of  1867.     Sun-spot  Minimum         ...  60 

12.  Eclipse  of  Jan.  n,  689,  B.C.,  at  Jerusalem          .         .  86 

13.  Theory  of  an  Eclipse  of  the  Moon    ....  159 

14.  Conditions  of  Eclipses  of  the  Moon  ....  161 

15.  Occultation  of  Jupiter,  Aug.  7,  1889  (Immersion)      .  201 

16.  Occultation  of  Jupiter,  Aug.  7,  1889  (Immersion)      .  201 

17.  Occultation  of  Jupiter,  Aug.  7,  1889  (Emersion)         .  202 

18.  Occultation  of  Jupiter,  Aug.  7,  1889  (Emersion)         .  202 


THE   STORY   OF   ECLIPSES. 


CHAPTER   I. 

INTRODUCTION. 

IT  may,  I  fear,  be  taken  as  a  truism  that  "  the  man  in 
the  street "  (collectively,  "  the  general  public  ")  knows 
little  and  cares  less  for  what  is  called  physical  science. 
Now  and  again  when  something  remarkable  happens, 
such  as  a  great  thunderstorm,  or  an  earthquake,  or  a  vol- 
canic eruption,  or  a  brilliant  comet,  or  a  total  eclipse, 
something  in  fact  which  has  become  the  talk  of  the  town, 
our  friend  will  condescend  to  give  the  matter  the  barest 
amount  of  attention,  while  he  is  filling  his  pipe  or  mixing 
a  whisky  and  soda;  but  there  is  not  among  ourselves  that 
general  attention  given  to  the  displays  of  nature  and  the 
philosophy  of  those  displays,  which  certainly  is  a  charac- 
teristic of  the  phlegmatic  German.  However,  things  are 
better  than  they  used  to  be,  and  the  recent  total  eclipse 
of  the  Sun  of  May  28,  1900  (visible  as  it  was  as  a  partial 
eclipse  all  over  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  and  as  a  total 
eclipse  in  countries  so  near  to  Great  Britain  as  Spain  and 
Portugal,  to  say  nothing  of  the  United  States),  attracted 
an  unusual  amount  of  attention  on  the  part  of  the  many 
millions  of  English-speaking  people,  and  also  induced  a 
numerically  respectable  remnant  to  give  their  minds  and 

9 


10  THE   STORY  OF   ECLIPSES. 

thoughts,  with  a  certain  amount  of  patient  attention,  to 
the  Science  and  Philosophy  of  Eclipses. 

Other  causes  are  also  in  co-operation  in  bringing 
about  such  interest.  It  is  true  that  men's  minds  were 
more  enlightened  at  the  end  of  the  ipth  century  than  they 
were  at  the  end  of  the  i6th  century,  and  that  a  trip  to 
Spain  awakened  vastly  different  thoughts  in  the  year  1900 
than  would  have  been  awakened,  say  in  the  year  1 587 , 
but  for  all  that,  a  certain  amount  of  superstition  still 
lingers  in  the  world,  and  total  eclipses  as  well  as  comets 
still  give  rise  to  feelings  of  anxiety  and  alarm  amongst  ill- 
educated  villagers  even  in  so-called  civilized  countries. 
Some  amusing  illustrations  of  this  will  be  presented  in 
due  course.  For  the  moment  let  me  content  myself  by 
stating  the  immediate  aim  of  this  little  book,  and  the  cir- 
cumstances which  led  to  its  being  written.  What  those 
circumstances  were  will  be  understood  generally  from 
what  has  been  said  already.  Its  aim  was  the  unam- 
bitious one  of  presenting  in  readable  yet  sound  scientific 
language  a  popular  account  of  eclipses  of  the  Sun  and 
Moon,  and  (very  briefly)  of  certain  kindred  astronomical 
phenomena  which  depend  upon  causes  in  some  degree 
similar  to  those  which  operate  in  connection  with  eclipses. 
These  kindred  phenomena  are  technically  known  as 
"Transits"  and  "Occultations."  Putting  these  two  mat- 
ters entirely  aside  for  the  present,  we  will  confine  our 
attention  in  the  first  instance  to  eclipses  ;  and  as  eclipses 
of  the  Sun  do  not  stand  quite  on  the  same  footing  as 
eclipses  of  the  Moon,  we  will,  after  stating  the  general 
circumstances  of  the  case,  put  the  eclipses  of  the  Moon 
aside  for  a  while. 


GENERAL   IDEAS. 

CHAPTER  II. 

GENERAL   IDEAS. 

THE  primary  meaning  of  the  word  "  Eclipse  " 
is  a  forsaking,  quitting,  or  disappearance.  Hence  the  cdV- 
ering  over  of  something  by  something  else,  or  the  immer- 
sion of  something  in  something ;  and  these  apparently 
crude  definitions  will  be  found  on  investigation  to  repre- 
sent precisely  the  facts  of  the  case. 

Inasmuch  as  the  Earth  and  the  Moon  are  for  our 
present  purpose  pratically  "  solid  bodies,"  each  must  cast 
a  shadow  into  space  as  the  result  of  being  illuminated  by 
the  Sun,  regarded  as  a  source  of  light.  What  we  shall 
eventually  have  to  consider  is  :  What  results  arise  from 
the  existence  of  these  shadows  according  to  the  circum- 
stances under  which  they  are  viewed  ?  But  before  reach- 
ing this  point,  some  other  preliminary  considerations 
must  be  dealt  with. 

The  various  bodies  which  together  make  up  the  solar 
system,  that  is  to  say,  in  particular,  those  bodies  called 
the  "  planets  "—some  of  them  "  primary,  "  others  "  second- 
ary" (alias  "  Satellites  "  or  "Moons") — are  constantly  in 
motion.  Consequently,  if  we  imagine  a  line  to  be  drawn 
between  any  two  at  any  given  time,  such  a  line  will 
point  in  a  different  direction  at  another  time,  and  so  it 
may  occasionally  happen  that  three  of  these  ever-moving 
bodies  will  come  into  one  and  the  same  straight  line. 
Now  the  consequences  of  this  state  of  things  were  admir- 
ably well  pointed  out  nearly  half  a  century  ago  by  a  popu- 
lar writer,  who  in  his  day  greatly  aided  the  development 
of  science  amongst  the  masses.  "  When  one  of  the  ex- 
tremes of  the  series  of  three  bodies  which  thus  assume  a 
common  direction  is  the  Sun,  the  intermediate  body  de- 
prives the  other  extreme  body,  either  wholly  or  partially. 


12  THE   STORY  OF   ECLIPSES. 

of  the  illumination  which  it  habitually  receives.  When 
one  of  the  extremes  is  the  Earth,  the  intermediate  body 
intercepts,  wholly  or  partially,  the  other  extreme  body 
from  the  view  of  the  observers  situate  at  places  on  the 
Earth  which  are  in  the  common  line  of  direction,  and  the 
intermediate  body  is  seen  to  pass  over  the  other  extreme 
body  as  it  enters  upon  or  leaves  the  common  line  of  di- 
rection. The  phenomena  resulting  from  such  contingen- 
cies of  position  and  direction  are  variously  denominated 
Eclipses,  Transits,  and  Occupations,  according  to  the 
relative  apparent  magnitudes  of  the  interposing  and  ob- 
scured bodies,  and  according  to  the  circumstances  which 
attend  them."  * 

The  Earth  moves  round  the  Sun  once  in  every  year  ; 
the  Moon  moves  round  the  Earth  once  in  every  lunar 
month  (27  days).  I  hope  everybody  understands  those 
essential  facts.  Then  we  must  note  that  the  Earth  moves 
round  the  Sun  in  a  certain  plane  (it  is  nothing  for  our 
present  purpose  what  that  plane  is).  If  the  Moon  as  the 
Earth's  companion  moved  round  the  Earth  in  the  same 
plane,  an  eclipse  of  the  Sun  would  happen  regularly  every 
month  when  the  Moon  was  in  "Conjunction"  ("New 
Moon" ),  and  also  every  month  at  the  intermediate  period 
there  would  be  a  total  eclipse  of  the  Moon  on  the  occasion 
of  every  "  Opposition"  (or  "  Full  Moon"  ).  But  inasmuch 
as  the  Moon's  orbit  does  not  lie  in  quite  the  same  plane  as 
the  Earth's,  but  is  inclined  thereto  at  an  angle  which  may 
be  taken  to  average  about  5^°,  the  actual  facts  are  differ- 
ent ;  that  is  to  say,  instead  of  there  being  in  every  year 
about  25  eclipses  (solar  and  lunar  in  nearly  equal  num- 
bers), which  there  would  be  if  the  orbits  had  identical 
planes,  there  are  only  a  very  few  eclipses  in  the  year,  never, 
under  the  most  favourable  circumstances,  more  than  7 

*  D.  Lardner,  Handbook  of  Astronomy,  3rd  ed.,  p.  288. 


GENERAL  IDEAS.  13 

and  sometimes  as  few  as  2.  Nor  are  the  numbers  equally 
apportioned.  In  years  where  there  are  7  eclipses,  5  of 
them  may  be  of  the  Sun  and  2  of  the  Moon ;  where  there 
are  only  2  eclipses,  both  must  be  of  the  Sun.  Under  no 
circumstances  can  there  be  in  any  one  year  more  than  3 
eclipses  of  the  Moon,  and  in  some  years  there  will  be  none. 
The  reasons  for  these  diversities  are  of  a  technical  charac- 
ter, and  a  full  elucidation  of  them  would  not  be  of  interest  to 
the  general  reader.  It  may  here  be  added,  parenthetically, 
that  the  occasions  will  be  very  rare  of  there  being  5  solar 
eclipses  in  one  year.  This  last  happened  in  1823,*  and  will 
only  happen  once  again  in  the  next  two  centuries,  namely 
in  1935.  If  a  total  eclipse  of  the  Sun  happens  early  in 
January  there  may  be  another  in  December  of  the  same 
year,  as  in  1889  (Jan.  i  and  Dec.  22).  This  will  not 
happen  again  till  2057,  when  there  will  be  total  eclipses 
on  Jan.  5  and  Dec.  26.  There  is  one  very  curious  fact 
which  may  be  here  conveniently  stated  as  a  bare  fact, 
reserving  the  explanation  of  it  for  a  future  page,  namely 
that  eclipses  of  the  Sun  and  Moon  are  linked  together  in 
a  certain  chain  or  sequence  which  takes  rather  more  than 
1 8  years  to  run  out  when  the  sequence  recurs  and  recurs 
adinfinitum.  In  this  i8-year  period,  which  bears  the  name 
of  the  "  Saros,"  there  usually  happen  70  eclipses,  of  which 
41  are  of  the  Sun  and  29  of  the  Moon.  Accordingly, 
eclipses  of  the  Sun  are  more  numerous  than  those  of  the 
Moon  in  the  proportion  of  about  3  to  2,  yet  at  any  given 
place  on  the  Earth  more  lunar  eclipses  are  visible  than 
solar  eclipses,  because  the  former  when  they  occur  are 
visible  over  the  whole  hemisphere  of  the  Earth  which  is 
turned  toward  the  Moon,  whilst  the  area  over  which  a 
total  eclipse  of  the  Sun  is  visible  is  but  a  belt  of  the  Earth 
no  more  than  about  150  to  170  miles  wide.  Partial 

*  But  not  one  of  them  was  visible  at  Greenwich. 


I4  THE   STORY  OF   ECLIPSES. 

eclipses  of  the  Sun,  however,  are  visible  over  a  very  much 
wider  area  on  either  side  of  the  path  traversed  by  the 
Moon's  shadow. 

Confining  our  attention  in  the  first  instance  to  eclipses 
of  the  Sun,  the  diagrams  Fig.  2  and  Fig.  3  will  make  clear, 
with  very  little  verbal  description,  the  essential  features  of 
the  two  principal  kinds  of  eclipses  of  the  Sun.  In  these 


FIG.  2. — Theory  of  a  total  eclipse  of  the  Sun. 


figures  S  represents  the  Sun,  M  the  Moon  and  E  the 
Earth.  They  are  not,  of  course,  even  approximately 
drawn  to  scale  either  as  to  the  size  of  the  bodies  or  their 
relative  distances,  but  this  is  a  matter  of  no  moment  as 
regards  the  principles  involved.  M  being  in  sunshine 
receives  light  on,  as  it  were,  the  left-hand  side,  which  faces 
5  the  Sun.  The  shadow  of  the  Moon  cast  into  space  is, 
in  the  particular  case,  thrown  as  regards  its  tip  on  to  the 
Earth  and  is  intercepted  by  the  Earth.  Persons  at  the 
moment  situated  on  the  Earth  within  the  limits  of  this 
shadow  will  not  see  any  part  of  the  Sun  at  all ;  they  will 
see,  in  fact,  nothing  but  the  Moon  as  a  black  disc  with 
only  such  light  behind  and  around  it  as  may  be  reflected 
back  on  to  the  sky  by  the  illuminated  (but  to  the  Earth 
invisible)  hemisphere  of  the  Moon,  or  as  may  proceed 
from  the  Sun's  Corona  (to  be  described  presently).  The 
condition  of  things  therefore  is  that  known  as  a  "  total  " 
eclipse  of  the  Sun  so  far  as  regards  the  inhabitants  of  the 
narrow  strip  of  Earth  primarily  affected. 

Fig.  3  represents  nearly  but  not  quite  the  same  con- 
dition of  things.  Here  the  Earth  and  the  Moon  are  in 
those  parts  of  their  respective  orbits  which  put  the  two 


GENERAL   IDEAS.  15 

bjdies  at  or  near  the  maximum  distance  possible  from  the 
Sun  and  from  one  another.  The  Moon  casts  its  usual 
shadow,  but  the  tip  does  not  actually  reach  any  part  of  the 


FIG.  3. — Theory  of  an  annular  eclipse  of  the  Sun. 

Earth's  surface.  Or,  in  other  words,  to  an  observer  on 
the  Earth  the  Moon  is  not  big  enough  to  conceal  the 
whole  body  of  the  Sun.  The  result  is  this ;  at  the  instant 
of  central  coincidence  the  Moon  covers  up  only  the  centre 
of  the  Sun,  leaving  the  outer  edge  all  round  uncovered. 
This  outer  edge  shows  as  a  bright  ring  of  light,  and  the 


FIG.  4. — Annular  eclipse  of  the  Sun. 

eclipse  is  of  the  sort  known  as  an  "  annular  "  eclipse  of 
the  Sun.*  As  the  greatest  breadth  of  the  annulus  can 
never  exceed  i£  minutes  of  arc,  an  annular  eclipse  may 
sometimes,  in  some  part  of  its  track,  become  almost  or 
quite  total,  and  vice  versd. 

*  Latin  Annulus,  a  ring. 


T6  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

The  idea  will  naturally  suggest  itself,  What  exactly 
does  happen  to  the  inhabitants  living  outside  (on  the  one 
side  or  the  other)  of  the  strip  of  the  Earth  where  the  cen- 
tral line  of  shadow  falls  ?  This  depends  in  every  case  on 
circumstances,  but  it  may  be  stated  generally  that  the  in- 


FIG.  5. — Partial  eclipse  of  the  Sun. 

habitants  outside  the  central  line  but  within  1000  to  2000 
miles  on  either  side,  will  see  a  larger  or  smaller  part  of 
the  Sun  concealed  by  the  Moon's  solid  body,  simultane- 
ously with  the  total  concealment  of  the  Sun  to  the  favoured 
individuals  who  live,  or  who  for  the  moment  are  located, 
within  the  limits  of  the  central  zone. 

Now  we  must  advance  one  stage  in  our  conception  of 
the  movements  of  the  Earth  and  the  Moon,  so  far  as  re- 
gards the  bearing  of  those  movements  on  the  question  of 
eclipses.  The  Earth  moves  in  a  plane  which  is  called  the 
"  Plane  of  the  Ecliptic,"  and  correspondingly,  the  Sun  has 
an  apparent  annual  motion  in  the  same  plane.  The 
Moon  moving  in  a  different  plane,  inclined  to  the  first 
mentioned  one  to  the  extent  of  rather  more  than  5°,  the 
Moon's  orbit  will  evidently  intersect  the  ecliptic  in  two 
places.  These  places  of  intersection  are  called  "  Nodes/' 


"SAROS"  AND   PERIODICITY  OF  ECLIPSES.      17 

and  the  line  which  may  be  imagined  to  join  these  Nodes 
is  called  the  "  Line  of  Nodes."  When  the  Moon  is  cross- 
ing the  ecliptic  from  the  S.  to  the  N.  side  thereof,  the 
Moon  is  said  to  be  passing  through  its  "  Ascending  Node" 
(£)  :  the  converse  of  this  will  be  the  Moon  passing  back 
again  from  the  N.  side  of  the  ecliptic  to  the  S.  side,  which 
is  the  "  descending  Node  "  (?5).  Such  changes  of  position, 
with  the  terms  designating  them,  apply  not  only  to  the 
Moon  in  its  movement  round  the  earth,  but  to  all  the 
planets  and  comets  circulating  round  the  Sun ;  and  also  to 
satellites  circulating  round  certain  of  the  planets,  but  with 
these  matters  we  have  no  concern  now. 


CHAPTER   III. 

THE    "  SAROS  "    AND    THE    PERIODICITY    OF 
ECLIPSES. 

To  bring  about  an  eclipse  of  the  Sun,  two  things  must 
combine:  (i)  the  Moon  must  be  at  or  near  one  of  its 
Nodes  ;  and  (2)  this  must  be  at  a  time  when  the  Moon  is 
also  in  "  Conjunction  "  with  the  Sun.  Now  the  Moon  is 
in  Conjunction  with  the  Sun  (=  "New  Moon")  12  or  13 
times  in  a  year,  but  the  Sun  only  passes  through  the 
Nodes  of  the  Moon's  orbit  twice  a  year.  Hence  an  eclipse 
of  the  Sun  does  not  and  cannot  occur  at  every  New  Moon, 
but  only  occasionally.  An  exact  coincidence  of  Earth, 
Moon,  and  Sun,  in  a  straight  line  at  a  Node  is  not  neces- 
sary to  ensure  an  eclipse  of  the  Sun.  So  long  as  the 
Moon  is  within  about  i8£°  of  its  Node,  with  a  lati- 
tude of  not  more  than  i°  34',  an  eclipse  may  take  place. 
If,  however,  the  distance  is  less  than  15}°  and  the  lati- 
tude less  than  i  °  23'  an  eclipse  must  take  place,  though 

2 


1 8  THE  STORY  OF   ECLIPSES. 

between  these  limits*  the  occurrence  of  an  eclipse  is 
uncertain  and  depends  on  what  are  called  the  "  horizontal 
parallaxes"  and  the  "apparent  semi-diameters"  of  the 
two  bodies  at  the  moment  of  conjunction,  in  other  words, 
on  the  nearness  or  "  far-offness  "  of  the  bodies  in  ques- 
tion. Another  complication  is  introduced  into  these  mat- 
ters by  reason  of  the  fact  that  the  Nodes  of  the  Moon's 
orbit  do  not  occupy  a  fixed  position,  but  have  an  annual 
retrograde  motion  of  about  19!°,  in  virtue  of  which  a  com- 
plete revolution  of  the  Nodes  round  the  ecliptic  is  accom- 
plished in  1 8  years  2i8|  days  (=  18.5997  years). 

The  backward  movement  of  the  Moon's  Nodes  com- 
bined with  the  apparent  motion  of  the  Sun  in  the  ecliptic 
causes  the  Moon  in  its  monthly  course  round  the  Earth  to 
complete  a  revolution  with  respect  to  its  Nodes  in  a  less 
time  (27.2  days)  than  it  takes  to  get  back  to  Conjunction 
with  the  Sun  (29.5  days)  ;  and  a  curious  consequence,  as 
we  shall  see  directly,  flows  from  these  facts  and  from  one 
other  fact.  The  other  fact  is  to  the  Sun  starting  coinci- 
dent with  one  of  the  Moon's  Nodes,  returns  on  the  Ecliptic 
to  the  same  Node  in  346.6  days.  The  first  named  period 
of  27.2  days  is  called  the  "  Nodical  Revolution  of  the 
Moon  "  or  "Draconic  Month,"  the  other  period  of  29.5 
days  is  called  the  "  Synodical  Revolution  of  the  Moon." 
Now  the  curious  consequence  of  these  figures  being  what 
they  are  is  that  242  Draconic  Months,  223  Lunations,  and 

19  Returns  of  the  Sun  to  one  and  the  same  Node  of  the 
Moon's  orbit,  are  all  accomplished  in  the  same  time  with- 
in 1 1  hours.     Thus  (ignoring  refinements  of  decimals) : — • 

Days.  Days.  Years.  Days.  Hours. 

242  times    27.2  =  6585.36  =    18        10        8% 

223  times    29.5  =  6585.32  =    18        10        7^ 

19  times  346.6  =  6585.78  =    18        10      18^ 

•These  limits  are  slig-htly  different  in  the  case  of  eclipses  of  the 
Moon.  (See  p.  162  post.) 


"SARDS"  AND   PERIODICITY  OF   ECLIPSES.     19 

The  interpretation  to  be  put  upon  these  coincidences 
is  this :  that  supposing  Sun  and  Moon  to  start  together 
from  a  Node  they  would,  after  the  lapse  of  6585  days  and 
a  fraction,  be  found  again  together  very  near  the  same 
Node.  During  the  interval  there  would  have  been  223 
New  and  Full  Moons.  The  exact  time  required  for  223 
Lunations  is  such  that  in  the  case  supposed  the  223rd 
conjunction  of  the  two  bodies  would  happen  a  little  before 
they  reached  the  Node ;  their  distance  therefrom  would 
be  28'  of  arc.  And  the  final  fact  is  that  eclipses  recur  in 
almost,  though  not  quite,  the  same  regular  order  every 
6585^  days,  or  more  exactly,  18  years  10  days  7  hours 
42  minutes.*  This  is  the  celebrated  Chaldean  "  SAROS," 
and  was  used  by  the  ancients  (and  can  still  be  used  by  the 
moderns  in  the  way  of  a  pastime)  for  the  prediction  of 
eclipses  alike  of  the  Sun  and  of  the  Moon. 

At  the  end  of  a  Saros  period,  starting  from  any 
date  that  may  have  been  chosen,  the  Moon  will  be  in  the 
same  position  with  respect  to  the  Sun,  nearly  in  the 
same  part  of  the  heavens,  nearly  in  the  same  part  of 
its  orbit,  and  very  nearly  indeed  at  the  same  distance 
from  its  Node  as  at  the  date  chosen  for  the  terminus  a 
quo  of  the  Saros.  But  there  are  trifling  discrepancies  in 
the  case  (the  difference  of  about  II  hours  between  223 
lunations  and  19  returns  of  the  Sun  to  the  Moon's  Node 
is  one)  and  these  have  an  appreciable  effect  in  disturbing 
not  so  much  the  sequence  of  the  eclipses  in  the  next  fol- 
lowing Saros  as  their  magnitude  and  visibility  at  given 
places  on  the  Earth's  surface.  Hence,  a  more  accurate 
succession  will  be  obtained  by  combining  3  Saros  periods, 
making  54  years  31  days  ;  while,  best  of  all,  to  secure  an 
almost  perfect  repetition  of  a  series  of  eclipses  will  be  a 

*  This  assumes  that  5  of  these  years  are  leap  years. 


20  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

combination  of  48  Saroses,  making  865  years  for  the 
Moon  ;  and  of  about  70  Saroses,  or  more  than  1200  years 
for  the  Sun. 

These  considerations  are  leading  us  rather  too  far 
afield.  Let  us  return  to  a  more  simple  condition  of  things. 
The  practical  use  of  the  Saros  in  its  most  elementary  con- 
ception is  somewhat  on  this  wise.  Given  18  or  19  old 
Almanacs  ranging,  say,  from  1880  to  1898,  how  can  we 

Error  of  Saros  by 

d.     h.     m.  Exact  Calculation. 

MOON  1879    Dec.  28    4    26p.m. 

(Mag.  0.17)    .    .      18  10    7    42 

(Mag.  0.16)    .    .  1898    Jan.     812      8  a.m.  (civil  time)  +  3  m. 

d.    h.     m. 

SUN  1880   Jan.   n  10    48  p.m. 

(Total).     .     .     .       18  10    7    42 

(Total).    .    .    .1898   Jan.   22    6    30 a.m.  (civil time)- ih.  710 

d     h.    m. 

MOON          1880   June  22    i    50  p.m. 
(Mag.  Total)  .     .      18  ii     7    42 

(Mag.  0.93)    .    .  1898   July     3    9    32  P-m.  +  35  m. 

d.    h.    m. 

SUN  1880   July     7     i    35  p.m. 

(Mag.  Annular)  .18  ii     7    42 

(Mag.  Annular).  1898    July    18    9    17  p.m.  +  r  h.  10  m. 

d.    h.    m. 

SUN  1880    Dec.     2    3    n  a.m.  (civil  time). 

(Mag.  0.04)    .    .18  ii    7    42 

(Mag.  0.02)    .     .  1898    Dec.   13  10    53  a.m.  -  i  h.  5  m. 

d.    h.    m. 

MOON          1880   Dec.   16    3    39  p.m. 
(Mag.  Total).     .18  "    7    4» 


(Mag.  Total) .  .  1898  Dec.  27  n  21  p.m.  -  13  m. 

SUN     1880  Dec.  3i  j  45  p.m. 

(Mag.  0.71)  .  .   18  ii  7  42 

(Mag.  0.72)    .  .1899  Jan.  ii  9  27  p.m.  -  i  h.  ii 


"SARDS"  AND   PERIODICITY  OF  ECLIPSES.      2I 

turn  to  account  the  information  they  afford  us  in  order  to 
obtain  from  them  information  respecting  the  eclipses 
which  will  happen  between  1899  and  1917?  Nothing 
easier.  Add  i87  iod  7"  42™  to  the  middle  time  of  every 
eclipse  which  took  place  between  1880  and  1898  begin- 
ning, say,  with  the  last  of  1879  or  the  first  of  1880,  and 
we  shall  find  what  eclipses  will  happen  in  1898  and  17 
following  years,  as  witness  by  way  of  example  the  table 
on  page  20. 

There  having  been  5  recurrences  of  Feb.  29  between 
Dec.  1 879  and  Jan.  1899,  5  leap  years  having  intervened, 
we  have  to  add  an  extra  day  to  the  Saros  period  in  the 
later  part  of  the  above  Table.* 

Let  us  make  another  start  and  see  what  we  can  learn 
from  the  eclipses,  say,  of  1883. 


MOON 
(Mag.  0.8)      .    . 

1883  April  22 
18            ii 

h. 
ii 

7 

Error  of  Saros  by 
m.                    Exact  Calculation. 
39  a.m. 
42 

(Mag.Penumbral) 

SUN 
(Mag.  Total).     . 

1901  May 

1883  May 
18 

3 

6 

ii 

7 
h. 
9 
7 

21  p.m. 
m. 
45  P-m. 
42 

+  51  m. 
Visible,  Philippines. 

(civil  time).—  a  m. 
Visible,  California. 

-3901. 
Visible,  N.  Japan. 

(Mag.  Total).    . 

MOON 
(Mag.  0.28)    .     . 

1901  May 

1883  Oct. 
18 

18 

16 
ii 

5 
h. 
6 

7 

27  a.m. 

m. 
54  a.m. 

42 

(Mag.  0.23)    .     . 

SUN 
(Mag.  Annular)  . 

1901  Oct. 

1883  Oct. 
18 

27 

30 
ii 

2 

h. 
II 

7 

36  p.m. 

37  P-m. 
42 

(Mag.  Annular)  .  1901    Nov.  ii     7     19  a.m.  (civil  time)  +  i  m. 

The  foregoing  does  not  by  any  means  exhaust  all  that 
can  be  said  respecting  the  Saros  even  on  the  popular  side. 

*  If  there  are  5  leap  years  in  the  18,  the  odd  days  will  be  10 ;  if 
4  they  will  be  ii  ;  if  only  3  leap  years  (as  from  1798  to  1815  and 
1897  to  1915),  the  odd  days  to  be  added  will  be  12. 


22  THE   STORY   OF   ECLIPSES. 

If  the  Saros  comprised  an  exact  number  of  days,  each 
eclipse  of  a  second  Saros  series  would  be  visible  in  the 
same  regions  of  the  Earth  as  the  corresponding  eclipse  in 
the  previous  series.  But  since  there  is  a  surplus  fraction 
of  nearly  one-third  of  a  day,  each  subsequent  eclipse  will 
be  visible  in  another  region  of  the  Earth,  which  will  be 
roughly  a  third  of  the  Earth's  circumference  in  longitude 
backwards  (/'.  <?.  about  1 20°  to  the  W.),  because  the  Earth 
itself  will  be  turned  on  its  axis  one-third  forwards. 

After  what  has  been  said  as  to  the  Saros  and  its  use  it 
might  be  supposed  that  a  correct  list  of  eclipses  for  18.03 
years  would  suffice  for  all  ordinary  purposes  of  eclipse 
prediction,  and  that  the  sequence  of  eclipses  at  any  future 
time  might  be  ascertained  by  adding  to  some  one  eclipse 
which  had  already  happened  so  many  Saros  periods  as 
might  embrace  the  years  future  whose  eclipses  it  was 
desired  to  study.  This  would  be  true  in  a  sense,  but 
would  not  be  literally  and  effectively  true,  because  corre- 
sponding eclipses  do  not  recur  exactly  under  the  same 
conditions,  for  there  are  small  residual  discrepancies  in  the 
times  and  circumstances  affecting  the  real  movements  of 
the  Earth  and  Moon  and  the  apparent  movement  of  the 
Sun  which,  in  the  lapse  of  years  and  centuries,  accumulate 
sufficiently  to  dislocate  what  otherwise  would  be  exact 
coincidences.  Thus  an  eclipse  of  the  Moon  which  in 
A.D.  565  was  of  6  digits  *  was  in  583  of  7  digits,  and  in 
601  nearly  8.  In  908  the  eclipse  became  total,  and  re- 
mained so  for  about  twelve  periods,  or  until  1088.  This 
eclipse  continued  to  diminish  until  the  beginning  of  the 
1 5th  century,  when  it  disappeared  in  1413.  Let  us  take 
now  the  life  of  an  eclipse  of  the  Sun.  One  appeared  at 
the  North  Pole  in  June  A.D.  1295,  and  showed  itself  more 
md  more  towards  the  S.  at  each  subsequent  period.  On 

*See  p.  26  (post)  for  an  explanation  of  this  word. 


"SARDS"  AND   PERIODICITY  OF   ECLIPSES.     23 

August  27,  1367,  it  made  its  first  appearance  in  the  North 
of  Europe  ;  in  1439  it  was  visible  all  over  Europe  ;  in 
1 60 1,  being  its  igih  appearance,  it  was  central  and  an- 
nular in  England  ;  on  May  5,  1818,  it  was  visible  in 
London,  and  again  on  May  15,  1836.  Its  three  next 
appearances  were  on  May  26,  1854,  June  6,  1872,  and 
June  17,  1890.  At  its  39th  appearance,  on  August  10, 
1980,  the  Moon's  shadow  will  have  passed  the  equator, 
and  as  the  eclipse  will  take  place  nearly  at  midnight 
(Greenwich  M.  T.),  the  phenomenon  will  be  invisible  in 
Europe,  Africa,  and  Asia.  At  every  succeeding  period 
the  central  line  of  the  eclipse  will  lie  more  and  more  to 
the  S.,  until  finally,  on  September  30,  2665,  which  will  be 
its  78th  appearance,  it  will  vanish  at  the  South  Pole.* 

The  operation  of  the  Saros  effects  which  have  been 
specified  above,  may  be  noticed  in  some  of  the  groups  of 
eclipses  which  have  been  much  in  evidence  (as  will  appear 
from  a  subsequent  chapter),  during  the  second  half  of  the 
1 9th  century.  The  following  are  two  noteworthy  Saros 
groups  of  Solar  eclipses  : — 


1842  July    8. 

1860  "     18. 

1878  "   29. 

1896  Aug.  9. 


1850  Aug.    7. 

1868  "      17. 

1886  "      29. 

1904  Sept.    9. 


If  the  curious  reader  will  trace,  by  means  of  the  Nau- 
tical Almanac  (or  some  other  Almanac  which  deals  with 
eclipses  in  adequate  detail),  the  geographical  distribution 
of  the  foregoing  eclipses  on  the  Earth's  surface,  he  will 
see  that  they  fulfil  the  statement  made  on  p.  22  (ante), 
that  a  Saros  eclipse  when  it  reappears,  does  so  in  regions 

*  In  Mrs.  D.  P.  Todd's  interesting  little  book,  Total  Eclipses  of 
the  Sun  'Boston,  U.  S.,  1894 \  which  will  be  several  times  referred 
to  in  this  work,  two  maps  will  be  found,  which  will  help  to  illus- 
trate the  successive  northerly  or  southerly  progress  of  a  series  of 
Solar  eclipses,  during  centuries. 


24  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

of  the  Earth  averaging  120°  of  longtitude  to  the  W.  of 
those  in  which  it  had,  on  the  last  preceding  occasion, 
been  seen  ;  and  also  that  it  gradually  works  northwards 
or  southwards. 

But  a  given  Saros  eclipse  in  its  successive  reappear- 
ances undergoes  other  transformations  besides  that  of 
Terrestrial  longitude.  These  are  well  set  forth  by  Pro- 
fessor Newcomb  *  :— 

"  Since  every  successive  recurrence  of  such  an  eclipse 
throws  the  conjunction  28'  further  toward  the  W.  of  the 
node,  the  conjunction  must,  in  process  of  time,  take  place 
so  far  back  from  the  node  that  no  eclipse  will  occur,  and 
the  series  will  end.  For  the  same  reason  there  must  be  a 
commencement  to  the  series,  the  first  eclipse  being  E.  of 
the  node.  A  new  eclipse  thus  entering  will  at  first  be  a 
very  small  one,  but  will  be  larger  at  every  recurrence  in 
each  Saros.  If  it  is  an  eclipse  of  the  Moon,  it  will  be  total 
from  its  I3th  until  its  36th  recurrence.  There  will  be 
then  about  13  partial  eclipses,  each  of  which  will  be 
smaller  than  the  last,  when  they  will  fail  entirely,  the  con- 
junction taking  place  so  far  from  the  node  that  the  Moon 
does  not  touch  the  Earth's  shadow.  The  whole  interval 
of  time  over  which  a  series  of  lunar  eclipses  thus  extend 
will  be  about  48  periods,  or  865  years.  When  a  series  of 
solar  eclipses  begins,  the  penumbra  of  the  first  will  just 
graze  the  earth  not  far  from  one  of  the  poles.  There  will 
then  be,  on  the  average,  n  or  12  partial  eclipses  of  the 
Sun,  each  larger  than  the  preceding  one,  occurring  at 
regular  intervals  of  one  Saros.  Then  the  central  line, 
whether  it  be  that  of  a  total  or  annular  eclipse,  will  begin 
to  touch  the  Earth,  and  we  shall  have  a  series  of  40  or  50 
central  eclipses.  The  central  line  will  strike  near  one  pole 

*  In  his  and  Professor  Holden's  Astronomy  for  Schools  and 
Colleges,  p.  184. 


"SAROS"  AND    PERIODICITY  OF   ECLIPSES.      25 

in  the  first  part  of  the  series;  in  the  equatorial  regions 
about  the  middle  of  the  series,  and  will  leave  the  Earth  by 
the  other  pole  at  the  end.  Ten  or  twelve  partial  eclipses 
will  follow,  and  this  particular  series  will  cease." 

These  facts  deserve  to  be  expanded  a  little. 

We  have  seen  that  all  eclipses  may  be  grouped  in  a 
series,  and  that  18  years  or  thereabouts  is  the  duration  of 
each  series,  or  Saros  cycle.  But  these  cycles  are  them- 
selves subject  to  cycles,  so  that  the  Saros  itself  passes 
through  a  cycle  of  about  64  Saroses  before  the  conditions 
under  which  any  given  start  was  made,  come  quite  round 
again.  Sixty-four  times  18  make  1152,  so  that  the  dura- 
tion of  a  Solar  eclipse  Great  Cycle  may  be  taken  at  about 
1 1 50  years.  The  progression  of  such  a  series  across  the 
face  of  the  Earth  is  thus  described  by  Mrs.  Todd,  who 
gives  a  very  clear  account  of  the  matter : — • 

"  The  advent  of  a  slight  partial  eclipse  near  either  pole 
of  the  Earth  will  herald  the  beginning  of  the  new  series. 
At  each  succeeding  return  conformably  to  the  Saros,  the 
partial  eclipse  will  move  a  little  further  towards  the  op- 
posite pole,  its  magnitude  gradually  increasing  for  about 
200  years,  but  during  all  this  time  only  the  lunar  penum- 
bra will  impinge  upon  the  Earth.  But  when  the  true 
shadow  begins  to  touch,  the  obscuration  will  have  become 
annular  or  total  near  the  pole  where  it  first  appeared. 
The  eclipse  has  now  acquired  a  track,  which  will  cross 
the  Earth  slightly  farther  from  that  pole  every  time  it 
returns,  for  about  750  years.  At  the  conclusion  of  this 
interval,  the  shadow  path  will  have  reached  the  opposite 
pole ;  the  eclipse  will  then  become  partial  again,  and  con- 
tinue to  grow  smaller  and  smaller  for  about  200  years  ad- 
ditional. The  series  then  ceases  to  exist,  its  entire  dura- 
tion having  been  about  1 1 50  years.  The  series  of  '  great 
eclipses,'  three  of  which  occurred  in  1865,  1883,  and  1901, 
while  others  will  happen  in  1919,  1937,  1955.  and  1973, 


26  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

affords  an  excellent  instance  of  the  northward  progression 
of  eclipse  tracks ;  and  another  series,  with  totality  nearly 
as  great  (1850,  1868,  1886,  1904,  and  1922),  is  progressing 
slowly  southwards." 

The  word  "  Digit,"  formerly  used  in  connection  with 
eclipses,  requires  some  explanation.  The  origin  of  the 
word  is  obvious  enough,  coming  as  it  does  from  the  Latin 
word  Digztus,  a  finger.  But  as  human  beings  have  only 
eight  fingers  and  two  thumbs  it  is  by  no  means  clear  how 
the  word  came  to  be  used  for  twelfths  of  the  disc  of  the 
Sun  or  Moon  instead  of  tenths.  However,  such  was  the 
case ;  and  when  a  16th-century  astronomer  spoke  of  an 
eclipse  of  six  digits,  he  meant  that  one  half  of  the  lumi- 
nary in  question,  be  it  Sun  or  Moon,  was  covered.  The 
earliest  use  of  the  word  "  Digit  "  in  this  connection  was  to 
refer  to  the  twelfth  part  of  the  visible  surface  of  the  Sun 
or  Moon ;  but  before  the  word  went  out  of  use,  it  came 
to  be  applied  to  twelfths  of  the  visible  diameter  of  the 
disc  of  the  Sun  or  Moon,  which  was  much  more  conven- 
ient. However,  the  word  is  now  almost  obsolete  in  both 
senses,  and  partial  eclipses,  alike  of  the  Sun  and  of  the 
Moon,  are  defined  in  decimal  parts  of  the  diameter  of  the 
luminary — tenths  or  hundredths  according  to  the  amount 
of  precision  which  is  aimed  at.  Where  an  eclipse  of  the 
Moon  is  described  as  being  of  more  than  12  Digits  or 
more  than  i.o  (  =  i  diameter)  it  is  to  be  understood  that 
the  eclipse  will  be  (or  was)  not  only  total,  but  that  the 
Moon  will  be  (or  was)  immersed  in  the  Earth's  shadow 
with  a  more  or  less  considerable  extent  of  shadow  encom- 
passing it. 

There  are  some  further  matters  which  require  to  be 
mentioned  connected  with  the  periodicity  of  eclipses.  To 
use  a  phrase  which  is  often  employed,  there  is  such  a 
thing  as  an  "  Eclipse  Season,"  and  what  this  is  can  only 
be  adequately  comprehended  by  looking  through  a  cata- 


"SARDS"   AND    PERIODICITY   OF   ECLIPSES.      27 

logue  of  eclipses  for  a  number  of  years  arranged  in  a  tab- 
ular form,  and  by  collating  the  months  or  groups  of 
months  in  which  batches  of  eclipses  occur.  This  is  not 
an  obvious  matter  to  the  casual  purchaser  of  an  almanac, 
who,  feeling  just  a  slight  interest  in  the  eclipses  of  a 
coming  new  year,  dips  into  his  new  purchase  to  see  what 
those  eclipses  will  be.  A  haphazard  glance  at  the  alma- 
nacs of  even  two  or  three  successive  years  will  probably 
fail  to  bring  home  to  him  the  idea  that  each  year  has  its 
own  eclipse  season  in  which  eclipses  may  occur,  and  that 
eclipses  are  not  to  be  looked  for  save  at  two  special 
epochs,  which  last  about  a  month  each,  and  which  are 
separated  from  one  another  and  from  the  eclipse  seasons 
of  the  previous  and  of  the  following  years  by  intervals  of 
about  six  months,  within  a  few  days  more  or  less.  Such, 
however,  is  the  case.  A  little  thought  will  soon  make  it 
clear  why  such  should  be  the  case.  We  have  already 
seen  that  the  Moon's  orbit,  like  that  of  every  other  planet- 
ary member  of  the  Solar  System,  has  two  crossing  places 
with  respect  to  the  ecliptic  which  are  called  "  Nodes.'" 
We  know  also  that  the  apparent  motion  of  the  Sun  causes 
that  body  to  traverse  the  whole  of  the  ecliptic  in  the 
course  of  the  year.  The  conjoint  result  of  all  this  is  that 
the  Moon  passes  through  a  Node  twice  in  every  lunar 
month  of  27  days,  and  the  Sun  passes  (apparently) 
through  a  Node  twice  in  every  year.  The  first  ultimate 
result  of  these  facts  is  that  eclipses  can  only  take  place  at 
or  near  the  nodal  passages  of  the  Moon  and  the  Sun,  and 
that  as  the  Sun's  nodal  passages  are  separated  by  six 
months  in  every  case  the  average  interval  between  each 
set  of  eclipses,  if  there  is  more  than  one,  must  in  all  cases 
be  six  months,  more  or  less  by  a  few  days,  dependent 
upon  the  latitude  and  longitude  of  the  Moon  at  or  about 
the  time  of  its  Conjunction  or  Opposition  under  the  cir- 
cumstances already  detailed.  If  the  logic  of  this  com- 


28  THE  STORY  OF   ECLIPSES. 

mends  itself  to  the  reader's  mind,  he  will  see  at  once  why 
eclipses  or  groups  of  eclipses  must  be  separated  by  inter- 
vals of  about  half  an  ordinary  year.  Hence  it  comes 
about  that,  taking  one  year  with  another,  it  may  be  said 
that  we  shall  always  have  a  couple  of  principal  eclipses 
with  an  interval  of  half  a  year  (say  183  days)  between 
each  ;  and  that  on  either  side  of  these  dominant  eclipses 
there  will,  or  may  be,  a  fortnight  before  or  a  fortnight 
after,  two  other  pairs  of  eclipses  with,  in  occasional  years, 
one  extra  thrown  in.  It  is  in  this  way  that  we  obtain 
what  it  has  already  been  said  dogmatically  that  we  do  ob- 
tain ;  namely,  always  in  one  year  two  eclipses,  which  must 
be  both  of  the  Sun,  or  any  number  of  eclipses  up  to  seven, 
which  number  will  be  unequally  allotted  to  the  Sun  or  to 
the  Moon  according  to  circumstances. 

Though  it  is  roughly  correct  to  say  that  the  two  eclipse 
seasons  of  every  year  run  to  about  a  month  each,  in 
length,  yet  it  may  be  desirable  to  be  a  little  more  precise 
and  to  say  that  the  limits  of  time  for  solar  eclipses  cover 
36  days  (namely  18  days  before  and  18  days  after  the 
Sun's  nodal  passages) ;  whilst  in  the  case  of  the  Moon, 
the  limits  are  the  lesser  interval  of  23  days,  being  11^  on 
either  side  of  the  Moon's  nodal  passages. 

We  have  already  seen  *  that  the  Moon's  nodes  are 
perpetually  undergoing  a  change  of  place.  Were  it  not 
so,  eclipses  of  the  sun  and  Moon  would  always  happen 
year  after  year  in  the  same  pair  of  months  for  us  on  the 
Earth.  But  the  operative  effect  of  the  shifting  of  the 
nodes  is  to  displace  backwards  the  eclipse  seasons  by 
about  20  days.  For  instance  in  1899  tne  eclipse  seasons 
fell  in  June  and  December.  The  middle  of  the  eclipse 
seasons  for  the  next  succeeding  20  or  30  years  will  be 
found  by  taking  the  dates  of  June  8  and  December  2,  1899, 

*See  p.  18  (ante}. 


"SARDS"  AND   PERIODICITY  OF  ECLIPSES.      29 

and  working  the  months  backward  by  the  amount  of  lof 
days  for  each  succeeding  year.  Thus  the  eclipse  seasons 
in  1900  will  fall  in  the  months  of  May  and  November; 
accordingly  amongst  the  eclipses  of  that  year  we  shall 
find  eclipses  on  May  28,  June  13,  and  November  22. 

Perhaps  it  would  tend  to  the  more  complete  elucida- 
tion of  the  facts  stated  in  the  last  half  dozen  pages,  if  I 
were  to  set  out  in  a  tabular  form  all  the  eclipses  of  a  suc- 
cession, say  of  half  a  Saros  or  9  years,  and  thus  exhibit 
by  an  appeal  to  the  eye  directly  the  grouping  of  eclipse 
seasons  the  principles  of  which  I  have  been  endeavouring 
to  define  and  explain  in  words. 

Approximate 
Mid-interval. 

«-*»• 


March  18. 


1894. 

March 

21. 

c. 

April 
Sept. 

15- 

0  . 

1895. 

Sept. 
March 

II. 

<ci 

March 

26. 

0. 

Aug. 

30. 

0  . 

Sept. 

4- 

C  • 

Sept. 

18. 

o  . 

1896. 

Feb. 

13- 

o  . 

Feb. 

28. 

C  • 

Aug. 

9- 

0  . 

Aug. 

23- 

c  . 

1897. 

Feb. 

i. 

o  . 

July 

29. 

©  . 

I898. 

Jan. 

7- 

C  • 

Jan. 

22. 

0  . 

July 

3- 

C  • 

July 

18. 

o  . 

Dec. 

13- 

0  . 

Dec. 

27. 

<L  . 

.   I  Sept.       4.  ** 

'   |  Feb.     20.  * 
>  Auer.     16.  ** 


Feb. 
July 

Jan-       I4 


-Dec.     27.  * 
1899.    Jan.      ii.     O  . 


3o  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

Approximate 
Mid-interval. 

1899-     June       8.     O.     .     .     .    ) 
June     23.     C  .     .     .     .    )J 

Dec.        2.     O  .     .     .     .    )  _. 

,  [•  Dec.       9.  * 

Dec.      16.     C  •     •     •     •   J 

1900.     May      28.     0.     ...    ) 
June      13.     <[  .     .     .     .    J  J 
Nov.     22.     ©  .     .     .     .      Nov.     22.  * 

""•  %  ,l:  J-:  :'::.(«*  -°-** 
St.  s  J:  :::.!*«  »• 

1902.     April      8.     0  ....   \ 

April    22.     (••••«    [•  April    22.  ** 
May        7-     0. .'....  J 

S  ;J:  I::::H  +• 

The  Epochs  in  the  last  column  which  are  marked 
with  stars  (*)  or  (**)  as  the  case  may  be,  represent  corre- 
sponding nodes  so  that  from  any  one  single-star  date  to 
the  next  nearest  single-star  date  means  an  interval  of  one 
year  less  (on  an  average)  the  igf  days  spoken  of  on  p.  29 
(ante).  A  glance  at  each  successive  pair  of  dates  will 
quickly  disclose  the  periodical  retrogradation  of  the  eclipse 
epochs. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

MISCELLANEOUS  THEORETICAL  MATTERS  CONNECTED 
WITH    ECLIPSES    OF    THE   SUN    (CHIEFLY). 

ONE  or  two  miscellaneous  matters  respecting  eclipses 
of  the  Sun  (chiefly)  will  be  dealt  with  in  this  chapter.  It 
is  not  easy  to  explain  or  define  in  words  the  circumstances 
which  control  the  duration  of  a  Solar  eclipse,  whereas  in 


MISCELLANEOUS  THEORETICAL  MATTERS.     31 

the  case  of  a  lunar  eclipse  the  obscuration  is  the  same  in 
degree  at  all  parts  of  the  Earth  where  the  Moon  is  visible. 
In  the  case  of  a  Solar  eclipse  it  may  be  total,  perhaps,  in 
Africa,  may  be  of  six  digits  only  in  Spain,  and  of  two 
only  in  England.  Under  the  most  favourable  circum- 
stances the  breadth  of  the  track  of  totality  across  the 
Earth  cannot  be  more  than  170  miles,  and  it  may  be  any- 
thing less  than  that  down  to  zero  where  the  eclipse  will 
cease  to  be  total  at  all,  and  will  become  annular.  The 
question  whether  a  given  eclipse  shall  exhibit  itself  on  its 
central  line  as  a  total  or  an  annular  one  depends,  as  has 
been  already  explained,  on  the  varying  distances  of  the 
Earth  and  the  Moon  from  the  Sun  in  different  parts  of 
their  respective  orbits.  Hence  it  follows  that  not  only 
may  an  eclipse  show  itself  for  several  Saros  appearances 
as  total  and  afterwards  become  annular,  and  vice  versa, 
but  on  rare  occasions  one  and  the  same  eclipse  may  be 
annular  in  one  part  of  its  track  across  the  Earth  and  total 
in  another  part,  a  short  time  earlier  or  later.  This  last- 
named  condition  might  arise  because  the  Moon's  distance 
from  the  Earth  or  the  Sun  had  varied  sufficiently  during 
the  progress  of  the  eclipse  to  bring  about  such  a  result ; 
or  because  the  shadow  just  reaching  the  Earth  and  no 
more  the  eclipse  would  be  total  only  for  the  moment  when 
a  view  perpendicular  upwards  could  be  had  of  it,  and 
would  be  annular  for  the  minutes  preceding  and  the 
minutes  following  the  perpendicular  glimpse  obtained  by 
observers  actually  on  the  central  line.  The  eclipse  of 
December  12,  1890,  was  an  instance  of  this. 

If  the  paths  of  several  central  eclipses  of  the  Sun  are 
compared  by  placing  side  by  side  a  series  of  charts,  such 
as  those  given  in  the  Nautical  Almanac  or  in  Oppolzer's 
Canon,  it  will  be  noticed  that  the  direction  of  the  central 
line  varies  with  the  season  of  the  year.  In  the  month  of 
March  the  line  runs  from  S.W.  to  N.E.,  and  in  Septem- 


32  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

ber  from  N.W.  to  S.E.  In  June  the  line  is  a  curve, 
going  first  to  the  N.E.  and  then  to  the  S.E.  In  Decem- 
ber the  state  of  things  is  reversed,  the  curve  going  first  to 
S.E.  and  then  to  the  N.E.  At  all  places  within  about 
2000  miles  of  the  central  line  the  eclipse  will  be  visible, 
and  the  nearer  a  place  is  to  the  central  line,  so  much  the 
larger  will  be  the  portion  of  the  Sun's  disc  concealed  from 
observers  there  by  the  Moon.  If  the  central  line  runs  but 
a  little  to  the  N.  of  the  Equator  in  Winter  or  of  25°  of  N. 
latitude  in  Summer,  the  eclipse  will  be  visible  all  over  the 
Northern  Hemisphere,  and  the  converse  will  apply  to  the 
Southern  Hemisphere.  It  is  something  like  a  general 
rule  in  the  case  of  total  and  annular  eclipses,  though  sub- 
ject to  many  modifications,  that  places  within  200 — 250 
miles  of  the  central  line  will  have  partial  eclipse  of  1 1 
digits;  from  thence  to  500  miles  of  10  digits,  and  so  on, 
diminishing  something  like  one  digit  for  every  250  miles, 
so  that  at  2000  miles,  or  rather  more,  the  Sun  will  be 
only  to  a  very  slight  extent  eclipsed,  or  will  escape  eclipse 
altogether. 

The  diameter  of  the  Sun  being  866,000  miles  and  the 
Moon  being  only  2160  miles  or  ^oth  how  comes  it  to  be 
possible  that  such  a  tiny  object  should  be  capable  of  con- 
cealing a  globe  400  times  bigger  than  itself?  The  an- 
swer is — Distance.  The  increased  distance  does  it.  The 
Moon  at  its  normal  distance  from  the  Earth  of  237,000 
miles  could  only  conceal  by  eclipse  a  bor.y  of  its  own  size 
or  smaller,  but  the  Sun  being  93,000,000  miles  away,  or 
392  times  the  distance  of  the  Moon,  the  fraction  ^z  rep- 
resenting the  main  distance  of  the  Moon,  more  than 
wipes  out  the  fraction  j^T  which  represents  our  satellite's 
smaller  size. 

During  a  total  eclipse  of  the  Sun,  the  Moon's  shadow 
travels  across  the  Earth  at  a  prodigious  pace — 1830  miles 
an  hour ;  30^  miles  a  minute  ;  or  rather  more  than  a  |  mile 


MISCELLANEOUS  THEORETICAL  MATTERS.     33 

a  second.  This  great  velocity  is  at  once  a  clue  to  the 
fact  that  the  total  phase  during  an  eclipse  of  the  Sun  lasts 
for  so  brief  a  time  as  a  few  minutes  ;  and  also  to  the  fact 
that  the  shadow  comes  and  goes  almost  without  being 
seen  unless  a  very  sharp  watch  is  kept  for  it.  Indeed,  it 
is  only  observers  posted  on  high  ground  with  some  miles 
of  open  low  ground  spread  out  under  their  eyes  who  have 
much  chance  of  detecting  the  shadow  come  up,  go  over 
them,  and  pass  forwards. 

Places  at  or  near  the  Earth's  equator  enjoy  the  best 
opportunities  for  seeing  total  eclipses  of  the  Sun,  because 
whilst  the  Moon's  shadow  travels  eastwards  along  the 
Earth's  surface  at  something  like  2000  miles  an  hour,  an 
observer  at  the  equator  is  carried  in  the  same  direction  by 
virtue  of  the  Earth's  axial  rotation  at  the  rate  of  1040  miles 
an  hour.  But  the  speed  imparted  to  an  observer  as  the 
result  of  the  Earth's  axial  rotation  diminishes  from  the 
equator  towards  the  poles  where  it  is  nil,  so  that  the 
nearer  he  is  to  a  pole  the  slower  he  goes,  and  therefore 
the  sooner  will  the  Moon's  shadow  overtake  and  pass 
him,  and  the  less  the  time  at  his  disposal  for  seeing  the 
Sun  hidden  by  the  Moon. 

It  was  calculated  by  Du  Sejour  that  the  greatest  pos- 
sible duration  of  the  total  phase  of  a  Solar  eclipse  at 
the  equator  would  be  7m  58%  and  for  the  latitude  of  Paris 
6m  10".  In  the  case  of  an  annular  eclipse  the  figures 
would  be  i2m  24*  for  the  equator,  and  9™  56"  for  the  lati- 
tude of  Paris.  These  figures  contemplate  a  combination 
of  all  the  most  favourable  circumstances  possible;  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  I  believe  that  the  greatest  length  of  total 
phase  which  has  been  actually  known  was  6im  and  that 
was  in  the  case  of  the  eclipse  of  August  29,  1886.  It  was 
in  the  open  Atlantic  that  this  duration  occurred,  but  it 
was  not  observed.  The  maximum  observed  obscuration 
during  this  eclipse  was  no  more  than  4™. 
3 


34 


THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 


Though  total  eclipses  of  the  Sun  happen  with  tolerable 
frequency  so  far  as  regards  the  Earth  as  a  whole,  yet  they 
are  exceedingly  rare  at  any  given  place.  Take  London, 
for  instance.  From  the  calculations  of  Hind,  confirmed 
by  Maguire,*  it  may  be  considered  as  an  established  fact 
that  there  was  no  total  eclipse  visible  at  London  between 
A.  D.  878  and  1715,  an  interval  of  837  years.  The  next 
one  visible  at  London,  though  uncertain,  is  also  a  very 
long  way  off.  There  will  be  a  total  eclipse  on  August  1 1, 
1999,  which  will  corneas  near  to  London  as  the  Isle  of 
Wight,  but  Hind,  writing  in  1871,  said  that  he  doubted 
whether  there  would  be  any  other  total  eclipse  "  visible  in 
England  lor  250  years  t  from  the  present  time."  Ma- 
guire states  that  the  Sun  has  been  eclipsed,  besides  twice 
at  London,  also  twice  at  Dublin,  and  no  fewer  than  five 
times  at  Edinburgh  during  the  846  years  examined  by 
him.  In  fact  that  every  part  of  the  British  Isles  has  seen 
a  total  eclipse  at  some  time  or  other  between  A.  D.  878 
and  1724  except  a  small  tract  of  country  at  Dingle,  on  the 
West  coast  of  Ireland.  The  longest  totality  was  on  June 
15,  885,  namely,  4m  55',  and  the  shortest  in  July  16,  1330, 
namely,  om  56'. 

Contrast  with  this  the  obscure  island  of  Blanquilla,  off 
the  northern  coast  of  Venezuela.  The  inhabitants  of  that 
island  not  long  ago  had  the  choice  of  two  total  eclipses 
within  three  and  a  half  years,  namely,  August  29,  1 886, 
and  December  22,  1889;  whilst  Yellowstone,  U.  S.,  had 
two  in  twelve  years  (July  29,  1878,  and  January  i,  1889). 

Counting  from  first  to  last,  Du  Sejour  found  that  at  the 
equator  an  eclipse  of  the  Sun  might  last  4"  29m,  and  at  the 

* Month.  Not.,  R.  A.  S.,  vol.  xlv.,  p.  400.    June,  1885. 

t  Johnson  makes  the  eclipse  of  June  14,  2151,  to  be  "nearly,  if 
not  quite,  total  at  London."  Possibly  it  was  this  eclipse  which 
Hind  had  in  his  thoughts  when  he  wrote  in  the  Times  (July  28, 
1871]  the  passage  quoted  above. 


EARLIER  STAGES  OF  AN  ECLIPSE  OF  THE  SUN.    35 

latitude  of  Paris  3*  26™.  These  intervals,  of  course,  cover 
all  the  subordinate  phases.  The  total  phase  which  alone 
(with  perhaps  a  couple  of  minutes  added)  is  productive  of 
spectacular  effects,  and  interesting  scientific  results  is  a 
mere  matter  of  minutes  which  may  be  as  few  as  one  (or 
less),  or  only  as  many  as  6  or  8. 

As  a  rule,  a  summer  eclipse  will  last  longer  than  a 
winter  one^  because  in  summer  the  Earth  (and  the  Moon 
with  it),  being  at  its  maximum  distance  from  the  Sun,  the 
Sun  will  be  at  its  minimum  apparent  size,  and  therefore 
the  Moon  will  be  able  to  conceal  it  the  longer. 


CHAPTER   V. 

WHAT   IS    OBSERVED     DURING    THE    EARLIER    STAGES 
OF  AN   ECLIPSE  OF  THE  SUN. 

THE  information  to  be  given  in  this  and  the  next  fol- 
lowing chapters  will  almost  exclusively  concern  total  and 
annular  eclipses  of  the  Sun,  for,  in  real  truth,  there  is 
practically  only  one  thing  to  think  about  during  a  partial 
eclipse  of  the  Sun.  This  is,  to  watch  when  the  Moon's 
black  body  comes  on  to  the  Sun  and  goes  off  again,  for 
there  are  no  subsidiary  phenomena,  either  interesting  or 
uninteresting,  unless,  indeed,  the  eclipse  should  be  nearly 
total.  The  progress  of  astronomical  science  in  regard  to 
eclipses  has  been  so  extensive  and  remarkable  of  late 
years  that,  unless  the  various  points  for  consideration  are 
kept  together  under  well-defined  heads,  it  will  be  almost 
impossible  either  for  a  writer  or  a  reader  to  do  full  justice 
to  the  subject.  Having  regard  to  the  fact  that  the  orig- 
inal conception  of  this  volume  was  that  it  should  serve  as 
a  forerunner  to  the  total  solar  eclipse  of  May  28,  1900 
(and  through  that  to  other  total  eclipses),  from  a  popular 


36  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

rather  than  from  a  technical  standpoint,  I  think  it  will  be 
best  to  mention  one  by  one  the  principal  features  that 
spectators  should  look  out  for,  and  to  do  so  as  nearly  as 
maybe  in  the  order  which  Nature  itself  will  observe  when 
the  time  comes. 

Of  course  the  beginning  of  an  eclipse,  which  is  vir- 
tually the  moment  when  the  encroachment  on  the  cir- 
cular outline  of  the  Sun  by  the  Moon  begins,  or  can  be 
seen,  though  interesting  as  a  proof  that  the  astronomer's 
prophecy  is  about  to  be  fulfilled,  is  not  a  matter  of  any 
special  importance,  even  in  a  popular  sense,  much  less  in 
a  scientific  sense.  As  a  rule,  the  total  phase  does  not  be- 
come imminent,  so  to  speak,  until  a  whole  hour  and 
more  has  elapsed  since  the  first  contact ;  and  that  hour 
will  be  employed  by  the  scientific  observer,  less  in  looking 
at  the  Sun  than  in  looking  at  his  instruments  and  appar- 
atus. He  will  do  this  for  the  purpose  of  making  quite 
sure  that  everything  will  be  ready  for  the  full  utilisation 
to  the  utmost  extent  of  the  precious  seconds  of  time  into 
which  all  his  delicate  observations  have  to  be  squeezed 
during  the  total  phase. 

With  these  preliminary  observations  I  shall  proceed 
now  to  break  up  the  remainder  of  what  I  have  to  say 
respecting  total  eclipses  into  what  suggest  themselves  as 
convenient  sectional  heads. 

THE  MOON'S  SHADOW  AND  THE  DARKNESS  IT  CAUSES. 
In  awaiting  the  darkness  which  is  expected  to  mani 
fest  itself  an  unthinking  and  inexperienced  observer  is  apt 
to  look  out  for  the  coming  obscurity,  as  he  looks  out  for 
night-fall  half  an  hour  or  more  after  sunset  and  during  the 
evening  twilight.  The  darkness  of  an  eclipse  is  all  this 
and  something  more.  It  is  something  more  in  two 
senses ;  for  the  interval  of  time  between  the  commence- 
ment of  an  eclipse  and  totality  is  different  in  duration  and 


EARLIER  STAGES  OF  AN  ECLIPSE  OF  THE  SUN.    37 

diffeient  in  quality,  so  to  speak,  from  the  diminution  of 
daylight  on  the  Earth  which  ensues  as  the  twilight  of 
evening  runs  its  course.  Speaking  roughly,  sunset  may 
be  described  as  an  almost  instantaneous  loss  of  full  sun- 
light ;  and  the  gradual  loss  of  daylight  is  noticeable  even 
at  such  short  intervals  as  from  one  five  minutes  to  another. 
This  is  by  no  means  the  case  previous  to  a  total  eclipse  of 
the  Sun.  When  that  is  about  to  occur,  the  reduction  of 
the  effective  sunlight  is  far  more  gradual.  For  instance, 
half  an  hour  after  an  eclipse  has  commenced  more  than 
half  the  Sun's  disc  will  still  be  imparting  light  to  the 
Earth  :  but  half  an  hour  after  sunset  the  deficiency  of 
daylight  will  be  very  much  more  marked  and,  if  no  arti- 
ficial light  is  at  hand,  very  much  more  inconvenient. 

If  there  should  be  within  easy  reach  of  the  observer's 
post  a  bushy  tree,  such  for  instance  as  an  elm,  30  ft.  or  40 
ft.  high,  and  spreading  out  sufficiently  for  him  to  place 
himself  under  it  in  a  straight  line  with  the  Sun,  and  with 
a  nice  smooth  surface  of  ground  for  the  sun's  rays  to  fall 
on,  he  will  see  a  multitude  of  images  of  the  Sun  thrown 
upon  the  ground. 

Until  the  eclipse  has  commenced  these  images  will  be 
tiny  circles  overlapping  one  another,  and  of  course  each  of 
these  circles  means  so  many  images  of  the  Sun.  These 
images  indeed  can  be  seen  on  any  fine  day,  and  the  circles 
increase  in  size  in  proportion  to  the  height  of  the  foliage 
above  the  ground,  being  something  like  I  inch  for  e^ery 
10  feet.  It  may  be  remarked,  by  the  way,  that  the  images 
are  circles,  because  the  Sun  is  a  source  of  light  having  a 
circular  outline,  and  is  not  a  point  of  light  like  a  star.  If 
it  were,  the  outline  of  the  foliage  would  be  reproduced  on 
the  ground  leaf  for  leaf.  It  follows  naturally  from  all  this 
that  when  in  consequence  of  there  being  an  eclipse  in  pro- 
gress the  shape  of  the  Sun's  contour  gradually  changes, 
so  will  the  shape  of  the  Solar  images  on  the  ground 


38  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

change,  becoming  eventually  so  many  crescents.  More- 
over, the  horns  of  the  crescent-shaped  images  will  be  in 
the  reverse  direction  to  the  horns  of  the  actual  crescent  of 
the  Sun  at  the  moment,  the  rays  of  the  Sun  crossing  as 
they  pass  through  the  foliage,  just  as  if  each  interstice 
were  a  lens. 

Supposing  there  are  some  spots  on  the  Sun  at  a  time 
when  an  eclipse  is  in  progress  the  Moon's  passage  over 
these  spots  may  as  well  be  noticed.  In  bygone  years 
some  amount  of  attention  was  devoted  to  this  matter  with 
the  view  of  ascertaining  whether  any  alteration  took 
place  in  the  appearance  of  the  spots ;  distortion,  for  in- 
stance, such  as  might  be  produced  by  the  intervention  of 
a  lunar  atmospheie.  No  such  distortion  was  ever  noticed, 
and  observations  with  this  idea  in  view  may  be  said  to 
possess  now  only  an  academic  interest,  for  it  may  be 
regarded  as  a  well-established  fact  that  the  Moon  has  no 
atmosphere. 

During  the  passage  of  the  Moon  over  Sun-spots  an 
opportunity  is  afforded  of  comparing  the  blackness,  or 
perhaps  we  should  rather  say,  the  intensity  of  the  shade 
of  a  Sun-spot  with  the  blackness  of  the  Moon's  disc. 
Testimony  herein  is  unanimous  that  the  blackness  of  the 
Moon  during  the  stages  of  partial  eclipse  is  intense  com- 
pared with  the  darkest  parts  of  a  Sun-spot ;  and  this,  be 
it  remembered,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  during  the  partial 
phase  the  atmosphere  between  the  observer  and  the  Sun 
is  brilliantly  illuminated,  whilst  the  Moon  itself,  being  ex- 
posed to  Earth-shine,  is  by  no  means  absolutely  devoid  of 
all  illumination. 

When  the  Moon  is  passing  across  the  Sun  there  have 
often  been  noticed  along  the  limb  of  the  Moon  fringes  of 
colour,  and  dark  and  bright  bands.  This  might  not  nec- 
essarily be  a  real  appearance  for  it  is  conceivable  that 
such  traces  of  colour  might  be  due  to  the  telescopes  em- 


EARLIER  STAGES  OF  AN  ECLIPSE  OF  THE  SUN.    39 

ployed  not  having  been  truly  achromatic,  that  is,  not 
sufficiently  corrected  for  colour  ;  but  making  every  allow- 
ance for  this  possible  source  of  mistake  there  yet  remains 
proof  that  the  colour  which  has  often  been  seen  has  been 
real. 

As  to  whether  the  Moon's  limb  can  be  seen  during  a 
partial  eclipse,  or  during  the  partial  phase  of  what  is  to  be 
a  total  eclipse,  the  evidence  is  somewhat  conflicting. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  when  the  totality  is  close  at  hand 
the  Moon's  limb  can  be  seen  projected  on  the  Corona 
(presently  to  be  described)  ;  but  the  question  is,  whether 
the  far-off  limb  of  the  Moon  can  be  detected  in  the  open 
sky  whilst  something  like  full  daylight  still  prevails  on  the 
Earth.  Undoubtedly  the  preponderance  of  evidence  is 
against  the  visibility  of  the  Moon  as  a  whole,  under  such 
circumstances  ;  but  there  is  nevertheless  some  testimony 
to  the  contrary.  A  French  observer,  E.  Liais,  said  that 
three  photographic  plates  of  the  eclipse  of  1858  seen  in  S. 
America  all  showed  the  outer  limb  of  the  Moon  with  more 
or  less  distinctness.  This  testimony,  be  it  noted,  is  photo- 
graphic and  not  visual ;  and  on  the  whole  it  seems  safest 
to  say  that  there  is  very  small  probability  of  the  Moon  as 
a  whole  ever  being  seen  under  the  circumstances  in 
question. 

What  has  just  been  said  concerns  the  visibility  of  the 
Moon  during  quite  the  early,  or  on  the  other  hand  during 
quite  the  late,  stages  of  a  total  eclipse.  Immediately  be- 
fore or  after  totality  the  visibility  of  the  whole  contour  of 
the  Moon  is  a  certain  fact ;  and  the  only  point  upon  which 
there  is  a  difference  of  opinion  is  as  to  what  are  the  time- 
limits  beyond  which  the  Moon  must  not  be  expected  to  be 
seen.  The  various  records  are  exceedingly  contradictory  : 
perhaps  the  utmost  that  can  be  said  is  that  the  whole 
Moon  must  not  be  expected  to  be  visible  till  about  20 
minutes  before  totality,  or  for  more  than  5  minutes  after 


4o 


THE   STORY   OF   ECLIPSES. 


totality— but  it  must  be  admitted  that  these  figures  are 
very  uncertain  in  regard  to  any  particular  eclipse. 

It  has  been  sometimes  noticed  when  the  crescent  of 
the  Sun  had  become  comparatively  small,  say  that  the 
Sun  was  about  |ths  covered,  that  the  uncovered  portion 
exhibited  evident  colour  which  has  been  variously  de- 
scribed as  "  violet,"  "  brick-red,"  "  reddish,"  "  pink," 
"  orange,"  "  yellowish."  The  observations  on  this  point 
are  not  very  numerous  and,  as  will  appear  from  the  state- 
ment just  made,  are  not  very  consistent;  still  it  seems 
safe  to  assume  that  a  hue,  more  or  less  reddish,  does 
often  pervade  the  uncovered  portion  of  a  partially- eclipsed 
Sun. 

The  remark  just  made  as  regards  the  Sun  seems  to 
have  some  application  to  the  Moon.  There  are  a  certain 
number  of  instances  on  record  that  what  is  commonly 
spoken  of  as  the  black  body  of  the  Moon  does,  under  cer- 
tain circumstances,  display  traces  of  red  which  has  been 
variously  spoken  of  as  "  crimson,"  "  dull  coppery,"  "  red- 
dish-brownish," and  "dull  glowing  coal." 

SHADOW   BANDS. 

Let  us  suppose  that  we  have  a  chance  of  observing  a 
total  eclipse  of  the  Sun  ;  have  completed  all  our  prelimi- 
nary preparations  ;  have  taken  note  of  everything  which 
needs  to  be  noted  or  suggests  itself  for  that  purpose  up 
till  nearly  the  grand  climax ;  and  that  the  clock  tells  us 
that  we  are  within,  say,  five  minutes  of  totality.  Some- 
where about  this  time  perhaps  we  shall  be  able  to  detect, 
dancing  across  the  landscape,  singular  wavy  lines  of  light 
and  shade.  These  are  the  "  Shadow  Bands,"  as  they  are 
called.  The  phrase  is  curiously  inexplicit,  but  seemingly 
cannot  be  improved  upon  at  present  because  'the  philos- 
ophy of  these  appearances  -  their  origin  and  the  laws 
which  regulate  their  visibility — are  unknown,  perhaps 


EARLIER  STAGES  OF  AN  ECLIPSE  OF  THE  SUN.    41 

because  amid  the  multitude  of  other  things  to  think  about 
sufficient  attention  has  hitherto  not  been  paid  to  the  study 
of  them.  These  shadow  bands  are  most  striking  if  a  high 
plastered  wall,  such  as  the  front  of  a  stone  or  stuccoed 
house,  is  in  their  track  as  a  screen  to  receive  them.  The 


FIG.  6.— Shadow  bands. 

shadow  bands  seem  to  vary  both  in  breadth  and  distance 
apart  at  different  eclipses,  and  also  in  the  speed  with 
which  they  pass  along.  Though,  as  already  stated,  little 
is  known  of  their  origin  yet  they  may  be  conceived  to  be 
due  to  irregularities  in  the  atmospheric  refraction  of  the 
slender  beam  of  light  coming  from  the  waning  or  the  wax- 
ing crescent  of  the  Sun,  for  be  it  understood  they  may  be 
visible  after  totality  as  well  as  before  it.  It  is  to  be 
remarked  that  they  have  never  been  photographed. 

In  addition  to  the  shadow  bands  there  are  instances 


THE   STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 


on  record  of  the  limbs  of  the  Sun's  crescent  appearing  to 
undulate  violently  on  the  approach  of  totality.  These 
undulations  were  noticed  by  Airy  in  1842  about  6  minutes 
before  totality.  Blake,  in  America  in  1869,  observed  the 
same  phenomenon  8  minutes  before  totality.  In  other 
cases  the  interval  would 
seem  to  have  been  very 
much  shorter — a  mere 
matter  of  seconds.  A 
very  singular  observa- 
tion was  made  in  1858 
by  Mr.  J.  D.  Smith  at 
Laycock  Abbey,  Wilt- 
shire, on  the  occasion 
of  the  annular  eclipse 
of  that  year.  He  says  *  : 
— "  Both  my  brother 
and  myself  were  dis- 
tinctly impressed  with 
the  conviction  that  the 
withdrawal  of  light  was 
not  continuous,  but  by 
pulsations,  or,  as  it 
were,  waves  of  obscu- 
ration, the  darkness  in- 
creasing by  strokes 
which  sensibly  smote 
the  eye,  and  were  re- 
peated distinctly  some 
five  or  seven  times  after  we  had  remarked  the  phenomenon 
and  before  the  time  of  greatest  obscuration.  This  did 
not  occur  on  the  return  of  light,  which  came  back  con- 
tinuously and  without  shock  or  break."  Rumker  men- 


FIG.  7. — Rays  of  light  seen  near 
the  time  of  totality. 


*  Month.  Not.,  R.  A.  S.,  vol.  xviii.,  p.  251. 


EARLIER  STAGES  OF  AN  ECLIPSE  OF  THE  SUN.    43 

tions  that  though  this  phenomenon  was  very  apparent  to 
the  naked  eye  it  was  not  visible  in  the  telescope. 

Faint  rays  or  brushes  of  light  sometimes  seem  to 
spring  from  the  diminishing  crescent  of  the  Sun.  These 
rays  generally  are  very  transient  and  not  very  conspicuous, 
and  perhaps  must  be  distinguished  as  regards  both  their 
appearance  and  their  origin  from  the  more  striking  rays 
which  are  usually  seen  a  few  minutes  before  or  after 
totality,  and  which  are  generally  associated  with,  or  even 
deemed  to  belong  to,  the  Corona.  Fig.  7  represents  these 
rays  as  seen  in  Spain  on  July  18,  1860,  some  minutes  after 
totality.  They  are  described  as  having  been  well  defined, 
but  at  some  moments  more  marked  than  at  others,  and 
though  well  defined  yet  constantly  varying.  Radiations 
of  light  more  or  less  of  the  character  just  described  may 
probably  be  regarded  as  a  standing  feature  of  every  total 
eclipse. 

THE  APPROACH   OF  TOTALITY. 

The  next  thing  to  think  about  and  to  look  out  for  is 
the  approach  of  the  Moon's  shadow.  I  have  mentioned 
this  already,  *  and  also  the  appalling  velocity  with  which 
it  seems  to  approach.  By  this  time  the  coming  darkness, 
which  characterizes  every  total  phase,  will  have  reached 
an  advanced  stage  of  development.  The  darkness  begins 
to  be  felt.  The  events  which  manifest  themselves  at  this 
juncture  on  the  Earth  (rather  than  in  the  sky  around  the 
Sun)  are  so  graphically  described  by  the  American  writer 
whom  I  have  already  quoted,  and  who  writes,  moreover, 
from  personal  experience,  that  I  cannot  do  better  than 
transfer  her  striking  account  to  my  pages.f  "  Then,  with 
frightful  velocity,  the  actual  shadow  of  the  Moon  is  often 
seen  approaching,  a  tangible  darkness  advancing  almost 

*  See  p.  32  (ante). 

f  Mrs.  D.  P.  Todd,   Total  Eclipses  of  the  Sun,  p.  21. 


44  THE  STORY  OF   ECLIPSES. 

like  a  wall,  swift  as  imagination,  silent  as  doom.  The 
immensity  of  nature  never  comes  quite  so  near  as  then, 
and  strong  must  be  the  nerves  not  to  quiver  as  this  blue- 
black  shadow  rushes  upon  the  spectator  with  incredible 
speed.  A  vast,  palpable  presence  seems  overwhelming 
the  world.  The  blue  sky  changes  to  gray  or  dull  purple, 
speedily  becoming  more  dusky,  and  a  death-like  trance 
seizes  upon  everything  earthly.  Birds,  with  terrified  cries, 
fly  bewildered  for  a  moment,  and  then  silently  seek  their 
night-quarters.  Bats  emerge  stealthily.  Sensitive  flowers, 
the  scarlet  pimpernel,  the  African  mimosa,  close  their  del- 
icate petals,  and  a  sense  of  hushed  expectancy  deepens 
with  the  darkness.  An  assembled  crowd  is  awed  into 
absolute  silence  almost  invariably.  Trivial  chatter  and 
senseless  joking  cease.  Sometimes  the  shadow  engulfs 
the  observer  smoothly,  sometimes  apparently  with  jerks; 
but  all  the  world  might  well  be  dead  and  cold  and  turned 
to  ashes.  Often  the  very  air  seems  to  hold  its  breath  for 
sympathy ;  at  other  times  a  lull  suddenly  awakens  into 
a  strange  wind,  blowing  with  unnatural  effect.  Then  out 
upon  the  darkness,  gruesome  but  sublime,  flashes  the 
glory  of  the  incomparable  corona,  a  silvery,  soft,  unearthly 
light,  with  radiant  streamers,  stretching  at  times  millions  of 
uncomprehended  miles  into  space,  while  the  rosy,  flaming 
protuberances  skirt  the  black  rim  of  the  Moon  in  ethereal 
splendour.  It  becomes  curiously  cold,  dew  frequently 
forms,  and  the  chill  is  perhaps  mental  as  well  as  physical. 
Suddenly,  instantaneous  as  a  lightning  flash,  an  arrow  of 
actual  sunlight  strikes  the  landscape,  and  Earth  comes  to 
life  again,  while  corona  and  protuberances  melt  into  the 
the  returning  brilliance,  and  occasionally  the  receding  lu- 
nar shadow  is  glimpsed  as  it  flies  away  with  the  tremen- 
dous speed  of  its  approach." 

In  connection  with  the  approach  of  the  Moon's  shad- 
ow, it  is  to  be  noted  that  at  totality  the  heavens  appear  in 


EARLIER  STAGES  OF  AN  ECLIPSE  OF  THE  SUN.    45 

a  certain  sense  to  descend  upon  the  Earth.  If  an  ob- 
server is  looking  upwards  toward  the  zenith  over  his  head, 
he  will  see  the  clouds  appear  to  drop  towards  the  Earth, 
and  the  surrounding  gloom  seems  also  to  have  the  effect 
of  vitiating  one's  estimate  of  distances.  To  an  observer 
upon  a  high  hill,  a  plain  below  him  appears  to  become 
more  distant.  Although  what  has  been  called  the  de- 
scent of  the  clouds  (that  is  to  say  their  appearance  of 
growing  proximity)  is  most  manifest  immediately  before 
the  totality,  yet  a  sense  of  growing  nearness  may  some- 
times be  noticed  a  very  considerable  time  before  the  total 
phase  is  reached. 

Whilst  on  the  subject  of  clouds,  it  may  be  mentioned 
that  although  there  is  in  the  vault  of  heaven  generally 
during  the  total  phase  an  appreciable  sensation  of  black 
darkness,  more  or  less  absolute,  that  is  to  say,  either 
blackish  or  greyish,  yet  in  certain  regions  of  the  sky, 
(generally  in  the  direction  of  the  horizon)  the  clouds,  when 
there  are  any,  often  exhibit  colours  in  strata,  orange  hue  be- 
low and  red  above,  with  indigo  or  grey  or  black  higher  up 
still,  right  away  to  the  Sun's  place.  The  cause  of  these 
differences  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  the  lower  part  of 
the  atmosphere  within  the  area  of  the  Moon's  shadow  is, 
under  the  circumstances  in  question,  illuminated  by  light 
which  having  passed  through  many  miles  of  atmosphere 
near  to  the  Earth's  surface,  has  lost  much  from  the  violet 
end  of  its  spectrum,  leaving  an  undue  proportion  of  the 
red  end. 

On  certain  occasions  iridescent  or  rainbow-tinted 
clouds  may  be  seen  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Sun,  either  be- 
fore, or  during,  or  after  totality,  depending  on  circum- 
stances unknown.  Such  clouds  have  been  observed  at 
all  these  three  stages  of  a  total  eclipse.  The  effects  of 
course  are  atmospheric,  and  have  no  physical  connection 
with  either  Sun  or  Moon. 


46  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

THE  DARKNESS  OF  TOTALITY. 

With  respect  to  the  general  darkness  which  prevails 
during  totality,  great  discrepancies  appear  in  the  accounts, 
not  only  as  between  different  eclipses,  but  in  respect  of 
the  same  eclipse  observed  by  different  people  at  different 
places.  'Perhaps  the  commonest  test  applied  by  most 
observers  is  that  of  the  facility  or  difficulty  of  reading  the 
faces  of  chronometers  or  watches.  Sometimes  this  is 
done  readily,  at  other  times  with  difficulty.  In  India  in 
1868,  one  observer  stated  that  it  was  impossible  to  recog- 
nise a  person's  face  three  yards  off,  and  lamplight  was 
needed  for  reading  his  chronometer.  On  the  other  hand 
in  Spain  in  1860,  it  was  noted. that  a  thermometer,  as  well 
as  the  finest  hand-writing,  could  be  read  easily.  The 
foregoing  remarks  apply  to  the  state  of  things  in  the  open 
air.  In  1860,  it  was  stated  that  inside  a  house  in  Spain 
the  darkness  was  so  great  that  people  moving  about  had 
to  take  great  care  lest  they  should  run  violently  against 
the  household  furniture. 

Perhaps  on  the  whole  it  may  be  said  that  the  darkness 
of  an  ordinary  totality  is  decidedly  greater  than  that  of  a 
full  Moon  night. 

Many  observers  have  noted  during  totality  that  even 
when  there  has  not  been  any  very  extreme  amount  of  ab- 
solute darkness,  yet  the  ruddy  light  already  mentioned  as 
prevailing  towards  the  horizon  often  gives  rise  to  weird 
unearthly  effects,  so  that  the  faces  of  bystanders  assume 
a  sickly  livid  hue  not  unlike  that  which  results  from  the 
light  of  burning  salt. 

METEOROLOGICAL  AND   OTHER  EFFECTS. 

It  is  very  generally  noticed  that  great  changes  take 
place  in  the  meteorological  ccnditions  of  the  atmosphere 
as  an  eclipse  of  the  Sun  runs  its  course  from  partial  phase 


EARLIER  STAGES  OF  AN  ECLIPSE  OF  THE  SUN.    47 

to  totality,  and  back  again  to  partial  phase.  It  goes  with- 
out saying  that  the  obstruction  of  the  solar  rays  by  the 
oncoming  Moon  would  necessarily  lead  to  a  steady  and 
considerable  diminution  in  the  general  temperature  of  the 
air.  This  has  often  been  made  the  matter  of  exact  ther- 
mometric  record,  but  it  is  not  equally  obvious  why  marked 
changes  in  the  wind  should  take  place.  As  the  partial 
phase  proceeds  it  is  very  usual  for  the  wind  to  rise  or 
blow  in  gusts  and  to  die  away  during  totality,  though 
there  are  many  exceptions  to  this,  and  it  can  hardly  be 
called  a  rule. 

The  depression  of  temperature  varies  very  much  in- 
deed according  to  the  locality  where  the  eclipse  is  being 
observed  and  the  local  thermometric  conditions  which 
usually  prevail.  The  actual  depression  will  often  amount 
to  10°  or  20"  and  the  deposit  of  dew  is  occasionally 
noticed. 

In  addition  to  the  general  effects  of  a  total  solar  eclipse 
on  men,  animals,  and  plants  as  summarised  in  the  extract 
already  made  from  Mrs.  Todd's  book  a  few  additional 
particulars  may  be  given  culled  from  many  recorded  ob- 
servations. Flowers  and  leaves  which  ordinarily  close  at 
night  begin  long  before  totality  to  show  signs  of  closing 
up.  Thus  we  are  told  that  in  1836  "  the  crocus,  gentian 
and  anemone  partially  closed  their  flowers  and  reopened 
them  as  the  phenomenon  passed  off :  and  a  delicate  South 
African  mimosa  which  we  had  reared  from  a  seed  entirely 
folded  its  pinnate  leaves  until  the  Sun  was  uncovered." 
In  1851  "  the  night  violet,  which  shortly  before  the  begin- 
ning of  the  eclipse  had  little  of  its  agreeable  scent  about 
it,  smelt  strongly  during  the  totality." 

In  the  insect  world  ants  have  been  noticed  to  go  on 
working  during  totality,  whilst  grasshoppers  are  stilled  by 
the  darkness,  and  earth-worms  come  to  the  surface. 
Birds  of  all  kinds  seem  always  upset  in  their  habits,  al- 


48  THE   STORY   OF   ECLIPSES. 

most  invariably  going  to  roost  as  the  darkness  becomes 
intensified  before  totality.  In  1868  "a  small  cock  which 
had  beforehand  been  actively  employed  in  grubbing  about 
in  the  sand  went  to  sleep  with  his  head  under  his  wing 
and  slept  for  about  10  minutes,  and  on  waking  uttered  an 
expression  of  surprise,  but  did  not  crow."  In  1869  men- 
tion is  made  of  an  unruly  cow  "  accustomed  to  jump  into 
a  corn-field  at  night "  being  found  to  have  trespassed  into 
the  said  corn-field  during  the  total  phase. 

The  thrilling  descriptions  of  the  effects  of  the  oncom- 
ing darkness  of  totality,  derived  from  the  records  of  past 
total  eclipses,  are  not  likely  to  be  improved  upon  in  the 
future,  for  we  shall  receive  them  more  and  more  from 
amateurs  and  less  and  less  from  astronomical  experts. 
Every  additional  total  eclipse  which  happens  testifies  to 
the  fact  that  the  time  and  thoughts  of  these  latter  classes 
of  people  will  be  to  an  increasing  degree  dedicated  to 
instrumental  work  rather  than  to  simple  naked  eye  or 
even  telescopic  observation.  The  spectroscope  and  the 
camera  are  steadily  ousting  the  simple  telescope  of  every 
sort  and  unassisted  eye  observations  from  solar  eclipse 
work. 

Mrs.  Todd  has  the  following  apt  remarks  by  way  of 
summary  of  the  results  to  an  individual  of  observing  a 
total  eclipse  of  the  Sun : — "  I  doubt  if  the  effect  of  wit- 
nessing a  total  eclipse  ever  quite  passes  away.  The  im- 
pression is  singularly  vivid  and  quieting  for  days,  and  can 
never  be  wholly  lost.  A  startling  nearness  to  the  gigantic 
forces  of  Nature  and  their  inconceivable  operation  seems 
to  have  been  established.  Personalities  and  towns  and 
cities,  and  hates  and  jealousies,  and  even  mundane  hopes, 
grow  very  small  and  very  far  away." 


TOTAL   PHASE  OF  AN  ECLIPSE  OF  THE  SUN.    49 


CHAPTER    VI. 

WHAT   IS  OBSERVED    DURING    THE    TOTAL    PHASE  OF 
AN   ECLIPSE  OF  THE  SUN. 

THE  central  feature  of  every  total  eclipse  of  the  Sun  is 
undoubtedly  the  Corona  *  and  the  phenomena  connected 
with  it ;  but  immediately  before  the  extinction  of  the  Sun's 
light  and  incidental  there- 
to there  are  some  minor 
features  which  must  be 
briefly  noticed. 

The  Corona  first  makes 
its  appearance  on  the  side 
of  the  dark  Moon  opposite 
to  the  disappearing  cres- 
cent, but  brushes  of  light 
are  sometimes  observed 
on  the  same  side,  along 
the  convex  limb  of  the  dis- 
appearing crescent.  The  FIG.  8.— Brushes  of  light, 
appearance  of  the  brushes 

will  be  sufficiently  realised  by  an  inspection  of  the  annexed 
engraving  without  the  necessity  of  any  further  verbal  de- 
scription. These  brushes  are  little,  if  at  all,  coloured,  and 
must  not  be  confused  with  the  "  Red  Flames  "  or  "  Prom- 
inences "  hereafter  to  be  described. 


BAILY'S  BEADS. 

When  the  disc  of  the  Moon  has  advanced  so  much 
over  that  of  the  Sun  as  to  have  reduced  the  Sun  almost  to 

*  There  seems  sufficient  evidence  to  show  that  the  Corona  may 
be  seen  even  on  occasions  when  the  Sun  is  not  totally  eclipsed,  pro- 
vided that  the  visible  crescent  of  the  Sun  is  exceedingly  narrow. 

4 


5° 


THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 


the  narrowest  possible  crescent  of  light,  it  is  generally 
noticed  that  at  a  certain  stage  the  crescent  suddenly 
breaks  up  into  a  succession  of  spots  of  light.  These  spots 
are  sometimes  spoken  of  as  "  rounded  "  spots,  but  it  is 


FIG. 


1  Baily's  Beads,"  four  stages,  at  brief  intervals. 
May  15,  1836. 


very  doubtful  whether  (certainly  in  view  of  their  supposed 
cause)  they  could  possibly  be  deemed  ever  to  possess  an 
outline,  which  by  any  stretch,  could  be  called  "  rounded." 
Collating  the  recorded  descriptions,  some  such  phrase  as 
"  shapeless  beads  "  of  light  would  seem  to  be  the  most 
suitable  designation.  These  are  observed  to  form  before 
the  total  phase,  and  often  also  after  the  total  phase  has 
passed.  Under  the  latter  circumstances,  the  beads  of 
light  eventually  run  one  into  another,  like  so  many  small 
drops  of  water  merging  into  one  big  one.  The  commonly 
received  explanation  of  "  Baily's  Beads  "  is  that  they  are 
no  more  than  portions  of  the  Sun's  disc,  seen  through 


TOTAL  PHASE  OF  AN  ECLIPSE  OF  THE  SUN.  51 

valleys  between  mountains  of  the  Moon,  the  said  mountains 
being  the  cause  why  the  bright  patches  are  discontinuous. 
It  is  exceedingly  doubtful  whether  this  is  the  true  expla- 
nation. The  whole  question  is  involved  in  great  uncer- 
tainty, and  well  deserves  careful  study  during  future 
eclipses  ;  but  this  it  is  not  likely  to  get,  in  view  of  the 
current  fashion  of  every  sufficiently  skilled  observer  con- 
centrating his  attention  on  matters  connected  with  the 
solar  Corona  (observed  spectroscopically  or  otherwise),  to 
the  exclusion  of  what  may  be  called  older  subjects  of 
study.  I  will  dismiss  Baily's  Beads  from  our  considera- 
tion with  the  remark  that  the  first  photograph  of  them 
was  obtained  at  Ottumwa,  Iowa,  during  the  eclipse  of 
1869. 

"  Baily's  Beads  "  received  their  name  from  Mr.  Francis 
Baily,  who,  in  1836,  for  the  first  time  exhaustively  de- 
scribed them  ;  but  they  were  probably  seen  and  even 
mentioned  long  before  his  time.  At  the  total  eclipse  of 
the  Sun,  seen  at  Penobscot,  Maine,  on  October  27,  1780, 
they  would  seem  to  have  been  noticed,  and  perhaps  even 
earlier  than  that  date. 

Almost  coincident  with  the  appearance  of  Baily's 
Beads,  that  is,  either  just  before  or  just  after,  and  also 
just  before  or  just  after  the  absolute  totality  (there  seems 
no  certain  rule  of  time)  jets  of  red  flame  are  seen  to  dart 
out  from  behind  the  disc  of  the  Moon.  It  is  now  quite 
recognised  as  a  certain  fact  that  these  "  Red  Flames  " 
belong  to  the  Sun  and  are  outbursts  of  hydrogen  gas. 
Moreover,  they  are  now  commonly  called  "  Prominences," 
and  with  the  improved  methods  of  modern  science  may 
be  seen  almost  at  any  time  when  the  Sun  is  suitably 
approached  ;  and  they  are  not  restricted  in  their  appear- 
ance to  the  time  when  the  Sun  is  totally  eclipsed  as  was 
long  supposed. 

I  may  have  more  to  say  about  these  Red  Flames  later 


5 2  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

on  ;  hut  am  at  present  dealing  only  with  the  outward  ap- 
pearances of  things.  Carrington's  description  has  been 
considered  very  apt.  One  which  he  saw  in  1851  he 
likened  to  "  a  mighty  flame  bursting  through  the  roof  of  a 
house  and  blown  by  a  strong  wind." 

Certain  ambiguous  phrases  made  use  of  in  connection 
with  eclipses  of  ancient  date  may  perhaps  in  reality  have 
been  allusions  to  the  Red  Flames ;  otherwise  the  first 
account  of  them  given  with  anything  like  scientific  preci- 
sion seems  to  be  due  to  a  Captain  Stannyan,  who  observed 
them  at  Berne  during  the  eclipse  of  1706.  His  words  are 
that  the  Sun  at  "  his  getting  out  of  his  eclipse  was  preceded 
by  a  blood-red  streak  from  its  left  limb  which  continued 
not  longer  than  six  or  seven  seconds  of  time  ;  then  part 
of  the  Sun's  disc  appeared  all  of  a  sudden." 

Some  subsequent  observers  spoke  of  the  Red  Flames 
as  isolated  jets  of  red  light  appearing  here  and  there ; 
whilst  others  seem  to  have  thought  they  had  seen  an  al- 
most or  quite  continuous  ring  of  red  light  around  the  Sun. 
The  last-named  idea  is  now  recognised  as  the  more 
accurate  representation  of  the  actual  facts,  the  Red 
Flames  being  emanations  proceeding  from  a  sort  of  shell 
enveloping  the  Sun,  to  which  shell  the  name  of  "  Chromo- 
sphere" has  now  come  to  be  applied. 

As  regards  the  Moon  itself  during  the  continuance  of 
the  total  phase,  all  that  need  be  said  is  that  our  satellite 
usually  exhibits  a  disc  which  is  simply  black ;  but  on  occa- 
sions observers  have  called  it  purple  or  purplish.  Al- 
though during  totality  the  Moon  is  illuminated  by  a  full 
allowance  of  Earth-shine  (light  reflected  by  the  Earth  into 
space),  yet  from  all  accounts  this  is  always  insufficient  to 
reveal  any  traces  of  the  irregularities  of  mountains  and 
valleys,  etc.,  which  exist  on  the  Moon. 

When  during  totality  any  of  the  brighter  planets,  such 
as  Mercury,  Venus,  Mars,  Jupiter,  or  Saturn,  happen  to 


TOTAL  PHASE  OF  AN   ECLIPSE   OF  THE  SUN.     53 

be  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Sun  they  are  generally  recognised  ; 
but  the  stars  seen  are  usually  very  few,  and  they  are  only 
very  bright  ones  of  the  ist  or  2nd  magnitudes.  Perhaps 
an  explanation  of  the  paucity  of  stars  noticed  is  to  be 
found  in  the  fact  that  the  minds  of  observers  are  usually 
too  much  concentrated  on  the  Sun  and  Moon  for  any 
thought  to  be  given  to  other  things  or  other  parts  of  the 
sky. 

Perhaps  this  is  a  convenient  place  in  which  to  recall 
the  fact  that  there  has  been  much  controversy  in  the 
astronomical  world  during  the  last  50  years  as  to  whether 
there  exist  any  undiscovered  planets  revolving  round  the 
Sun  within  the  orbit  of  Mercury.  Whilst  there  is  some 
evidence,  though  slight,  that  one  or  more  such  planets 
have  been  seen,  opponents  of  the  idea  base  their  scepti- 
cism on  the  fact  that  with  so  many  total  eclipses  as  there 
have  been  since  1859  (when  Lescarbault  claimed  to  have 
found  a  planet  which  has  been  called  "  Vulcan  "),  no  cer- 
tain proof  has  been  obtained  of  the  existence  of  such  a 
planet ;  and  what  better  occasion  for  finding  one  (if  one 
exists  of  any  size)  than  the  darkness  of  a  total  solar 
eclipse  ?  At  present  it  must  be  confessed  that  the  sceptics 
have  the  best  of  it. 

THE  CORONA. 

We  have  now  to  consider  what  I  have  already  called 
the  central  feature  of  every  total  eclipse.  It  was  long  ago 
compared  to  the  nimbus  often  placed  by  painters  around 
the  heads  of  the  Virgin  Mary  and  other  saints  of  old  ;  and 
as  conveying  a  rough  general  idea  the  comparison  may 
still  stand.  It  has  been  suggested  that  not  a  bad  idea  of 
it  may  be  obtained  by  looking  at  a  Full  Moon  through  a 
wire-gauze  window-screen.  The  Corona  comes  into  view 
a  short  time  (usually  to  be  measured  by  seconds)  before 
the  total  extinction  of  the  Sun's  rays,  lasts  during  totality 


54  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

and  endures  for  a  brief  interval  of  seconds  (or  it  might  be 
a  minute)  after  the  Sun  has  reappeared.  It  was  long  a 
matter  of  discussion  whether  the  Corona  belonged  to  the 
Sun  or  to  the  Moon.  In  the  early  days  of  telescopic 
astronomy  there  was  something  to  be  said  perhaps  on 
both  sides,  but  it  is  now  a  matter  of  absolute  certainty 
that  it  belongs  to  the  Sun,  and  that  the  Moon  contrib- 
utes nothing  to  the  spectacle  of  a  total  eclipse  of  the 
Sun,  except  its  own  solid  body,  which  blocks  out  the 
Sun's  light,  and  its  shadow,  which  passes  across  the 
Earth. 

Of  the  general  appearance  of  the  Corona  some  idea 
may  be  obtained  from  Fig.  i  (see  Frontispiece)  which  so 
far  as  it  goes  needs  little  or  no  verbal  description.  Stress 
must  however  be  laid  on  the  word  "  general  "  because 
every  Corona  may  be  said  to  differ  from  its  immediate 
predecessor  and  successor,  although,  as  we  shall  see  pres- 
ently, there  is  strong  reason  to  believe  that  there  is  a 
periodicity  in  connection  with  Coronas  as  with  so  many 
other  things  in  the  world  of  Astronomy.  A  curious  point 
may  here  be  mentioned  as  apparently  well  established, 
namely,  that  when  long  rays  are  noticed  in  the  Corona 
they  do  not  seem  to  radiate  from  the  Sun's  centre  as  the 
short  rays  more  or  less  seem  to  do.  Though  the  aggre- 
gate brilliancy  of  the  Corona  varies  somewhat  yet  it  may 
be  taken  to  be  much  about  equal  on  the  whole  to  the 
Moon  at  its  full.  The  Corona  is  quite  unlike  the  Moon 
as  regards  heat,  for  its  radiant  heat  has  been  found  to  be 
very  well  marked. 

There  is  another  thing  connected  with  the  Sun's  Co- 
rona which  needs  to  be  mentioned  at  the  outset  and  which 
also  furnishes  a  reason  for  treating  it  in  a  somewhat 
special  manner.  The  usual  practice  in  writing  about 
science  is  to  deal  with  it  in  the  first  instance  descriptively, 
and  then  if  any  historical  information  is  to  be  given  to 


TOTAL   PHASE  OF  AN   ECLIPSE  OF  THE  SUN.     55 

exhibit  that  separately  and  subsequently.  But  our  knowl- 
edge of  the  Sun's  Corona  has  developed  so  entirely  by 
steps  from  a  small  beginning  that  it  is  neither  easy  nor 
advantageous  to  keep  the  history  separate  or  in  the  back- 
ground and  I  shall  therefore  not  attempt  to  do  so. 

Astronomers  are  not  agreed  as  to  what  is  the  first 
record  of  the  Corona.  It  is  commonly  associated  with  a 
total  eclipse  which  occurred  in  the  ist  century  A.D.  and 
possibly  in  the  year  96  A.D.  Some  details  of  the  discus- 
sion will  be  found  in  a  later  chapter,*  and  I  will  make  no 
further  allusion  to  the  matter  here.  Passing  over  the 
eclipses  of  968  A.D.  and  1030  A.D.  the  records  of  both  of 
which  possibly  imply  that  the  Corona  was  noticed,  we 
may  find  ourselves  on  thoroughly  firm  ground  in  consider- 
ing the  eclipse  of  April  9,  1 567.  Clavius,  a  well-known 
writer  on  chronology,  undoubtedly  saw  then  the  Corona  in 
the  modern  acceptation  of  the  word  but  thought  it  merely 
the  uncovered  rim  of  the  Sun.  In  reply  to  this  Kepler 
showed  by  some  computations  of  his  own,  based  on  the 
relative  apparent  sizes  of  the  Sun  and  Moon,  that  Clavius's 
theory  was  untenable.  Kepler,  however,  put  forth  a 
theory  of  his  own  which  was  no  better,  namely,  that  the 
Corona  was  due  to  the  existence  of  an  atmosphere  round 
the  Moon  and  proved  its  existence.  From  this  time  for- 
wards we  have  statements,  by  various  observers,  applying 
to  various  eclipses,  of  the  Corona  seeming  to  be  endued 
with  a  rotatory  motion.  The  Spanish  observer,  Don  A. 
Ulloa,  in  1778,  wrote  thus  respecting  the  Corona  seen  in 
that  year  : — "  After  the  immersion  we  began  to  observe 
round  the  Moon  a  very  brilliant  circle  of  light  which 
seemed  to  have  a  rapid  circular  motion  something  similar 
to  that  of  a  rocket  turning  about  its  centre."  Modern 
observations  furnish  no  counterpart  of  these  ideas  of  mo- 

*Seep.  in  (post). 


5 6  THE   STORY   OF   ECLIPSES. 

tion  in  the  Corona.  Passing  over  many  intervening 
eclipses  we  must  note  that  of  1836  ^  which  gave  us  "  Baily's 
Beads  ")  as  the  first  which  set  men  thinking  that  total 
eclipses  of  the  Sun  exhibited  subsidiary  phenomena 
deserving  of  careful  and  patient  attention.  Such  attention 
was  given  on  t.he  occasion  of  the  eclipses  of  1842  and 
1851,  still  however  without  the  Corona  attracting  that 
interest  which  it  has  gained  for  itself  more  recently.  It 
was  noticed  indeed  that  the  Corona  always  first  showed 
itself  on  the  side  of  the  Moon  farthest  from  the  vanishing 
crescent  but  the  full  significance  of  this  fact  was  not  at 
first  realised.  Mrs.  Todd  well  remarks : — "  In  the  early 
observations  of  the  Corona  it  was  regarded  as  a  halo 
merely  and  so  drawn.  Its  real  structure  was  neither 
known,  depicted,  nor  investigated.  The  earliest  pictures 
all  show  this.  Preconceived  ideas  prejudiced  the  ob- 
servers, and  their  sketches  were  mostly  structureless 
....  It  should  not  be  forgotten  that  the  Coronal  rays 
project  outward  into  space  from  a  spherical  Sun  and  do 
not  lie  in  a  plane  as  they  appear  to  the  eye  in  photo- 
graphs and  drawings."  After  remarking  on  the  value 
of  photographs  of  the  Corona  up  to  a  certain  point 
because  of  their  automatic  accuracy  Mrs.  Todd  very 
sensibly  says,  "  but  pencil  drawings,  while  ordinarily  less 
trustworthy  because  involving  the  uncertain  element  of 
personal  equation  are  more  valuable  in  delineating  the 
finest  and  faintest  detail  of  which  the  sensitive  plate  rarely 
takes  note ;  the  vast  array  of  both,  however,  shows 
marked  differences  in  the  structure  and  form  of  the  Co- 
rona from  one  eclipse  to  another  though  it  has  not  yet 
revealed  rapid  changes  during  any  one  observation.  This 
last  interesting  feature  can  be  studied  only  by  comparison 
of  photographs  near  the  beginning  of  an  eclipse  track  and 
its  end,  two  or  three  hours  of  absolute  time  apart."  Con- 
certed efforts  to  accomplish  this  were  made  in  1871, 1887, 


TOTAL  PHASE  OF  AN  ECLIPSE  OF  THE  SUN.  57 

and  1889,  but  they  broke  down  because  the  weather 
failed  at  one  or  other  end  of  the  chain  of  observing  sta- 
tions and  a  succession  of  photographs  not  simultaneous 
but  separated  by  sufficient  intervals  of  time  could  not  be 
had.  The  eclipse  of  1893,  however,  yielded  successful 
though  negative  results.  Photographs  in  South  America 
compared  with  photographs  in  Africa  two  hours  later  in 
time  disclosed  no  appreciable  difference  in  the  structure 
of  the  Corona  and  its  streamers.  The  eclipse  of  May  28, 
1900,  furnished  a  most  favourable  opportunity  for  a  repeti- 
tion of  this  experiment  by  reason  of  the  fact  that  the  line 
of  totality  began  in  North  America,  crossed  Portugal  and 
Spain  and  ceased  in  Africa.  Many  photographic  observ- 
ing stations  were  established  where  observations  were 
made  at  successive  intervals  spread  over  several  hours. 
Astronomers  await  the  comparison  of  these  plates  with 
unusual  interest. 

Although  of  course  the  Corona  had  been  observed 
long  before  the  year  1851,  as  indeed  we  have  already  seen, 
yet  the  eclipse  of  1851  is  the  farthest  back  which  we  can 
safely  take  as  a  starting-point  for  gathering  up  thoroughly 
precise  details,  because  it  was  the  first  at  which  photog- 
raphy was  brought  into  use.  Starting,  therefore,  with 
that  eclipse  I  want  to  lay  before  the  reader  some  of  the 
very  interesting  and  remarkable  generalisations  which 
(thanks  especially  to  Mr.  W.  H.  Wesley's  skilful  review  of 
many  of  the  photographic  results)  are  now  gradually  un- 
folding themselves  to  astronomers.  To  put  the  matter  in 
the  fewest  possible  words,  there  seems  little  or  no  doubt 
that  according  as  spots  on  the  Sun  are  abundant  or  scarce 
so  the  Corona  when  visible  during  an  eclipse  varies  in 
appearance  from  one  period  of  eleven  years  to  another 
like  period.  Or,  to  put  it  in  another  way,  given  the  date 
of  a  coming  total  eclipse  we  can  predict  to  a  certain  ex- 
tent the  probable  shape  and  character  of  the  Corona  if  we 


FIG.  10. — Corona  of  1882.     (Sun-spot  maximum.) 


TOTAL  PHASE  OF  AN  ECLIPSE  OF  THE  SUN.  59 

know  how  the  forthcoming  date  stands  as  regards  a  Sun- 
spot  maximum  or  minimum. 

The  most  recent  important  eclipses  up  to  date  which 
have  been  observed,  namely  those  of  April  16,  1893,  Aug. 
9,  1896,  and  Jan.  21,  1898,  do  not  add  much  to  our  useful 
records  of  the  outward  appearances  presented  by  the 
Corona.  The  1896  Corona  is  described  as  intermediate 
between  the  two  Types  respectively  associated  with  years 
of  maximum  and  minimum  Sun-spots,  and  this  is  as  it 
should  have  been,  albeit  there  was  one  extension  which 
reached  to  about  two  diameters  of  the  Sun.  The  1 898 
Corona  yielded  four  long  Coronal  streamers  reaching 
much  farther  from  the  Sun  than  any  previously  seen,  the 
two  longest  reaching  to  4^  and  6  diameters  of  the  Sun 
respectively.  These  dimensions  are  quite  unprecedented. 

The  application  of  the  spectroscope  to  observations  of 
eclipses  of  the  Sun  demands  a  few  words  of  notice  in  this 
place,  but  it  would  not  be  consistent  with  the  plan  of  this 
work  to  go  into  details.  Though  the  spectroscope  has 
been  applied  under  many  different  circumstances  to  differ- 
ent parts  of  the  Sun's  surroundings  in  connection  with 
total  eclipses  yet  it  is  in  regard  to  the  Corona  that  most 
has  been  done  and  most  has  been  discovered.  The  sub- 
stance of  the  discoveries  made  is  that  the  Corona  shines 
with  an  intrinsic  light  of  its  own,  that  is  to  say,  that  it  is 
composed  of  constituents  whose  temperature  is  sufficiently 
elevated  to  be  self-luminous.  These  constituents  are 
chiefly  hydrogen  ;  the  body  which  corresponds  to  the  line 
D3  (of  Fraunhofer's  scale),  and  which  has  been  named 
"  Helium  "  ;  and  the  body  which  corresponds  to  the  bright 
green  line  1474  of  Kirchoffs  scale  and  which,  since  its 
existence  was  first  suspected  and  then  assured,  has  been 
named  "  Coronium." 

The  reader  will  not  be  surprised  to  learn,  from  what 
has  gone  before,  that  an  immense  mass  of  records  have 


TOTAL  PHASE  OF  AN   ECLIPSE  OF  THE  SUN.     6 1 

accumulated  respecting  the  appearance  of  the  Corona. 
Correspondingly  numerous  and  divergent  are  the  theories 
which  have  been  launched  to  explain  the  observations 
made.  One  thing  is  in  the  highest  degree  probable, 
namely,  that  electricity  is  largely  concerned. 

Going  back  to  the  question  of  Sun-spots  regarded  in 
their  possible  or  probable  association  with  the  Corona,  the 
present  position  of  matters  appears  to  be  this :  that  there 
is  a  real  connection  between  the  general  form  of  the  Co- 
rona and  disturbances  on  the  Sun,  taking  Sun-spots  as  an 
indication  of  solar  activity.  When  Sun-spots  are  at  or 
near  their  maximum,  the  Corona  has  generally  been  some- 
what symmetrical,  with  synclinal  groups  of  rays  making 
angles  of  45°  with  its  general  axis.  On  the  other  hand, 
at  the  epochs  of  minimum  Sun-spots,  the  Corona  shows 
polar  rifts  much  more  widely  open,  with  synclinal  zones 
making  larger  angles  with  the  axis,  and  being,  therefore, 
more  depressed  towards  the  equatorial  regions,  in  which, 
moreover,  there  is  usually  a  very  marked  extension  of 
Coronal  matter  in  the  form  of  elongated  streamers  reach- 
ing to  several  diameters  of  the  Sun. 

This  generalisation  is  well  borne  out  by  the  maximum- 
epoch  Coronas  of  1870  and  1871,  and  the  minimum-epoch 
Coronas  of  1867,  1874,  1875,  1878,  and  perhaps  1887,  and 
certainly  1889.  On  the  other  hand,  the  eclipses  of  1883, 
1885,  and  1886  do  not  strikingly  confirm  this  theory.  The 
eclipse  of  1883  was  at  a  time  of  rapidly  decreasing  solar 
activity,  yet  the  Corona  had  the  features  of  a  Sun-spot 
maximum.  The  same,  though  in  a  somewhat  less  degree, 
may  be  said  of  the  eclipses  of  1885  and  1886.  At  the 
times  of  both  of  these  eclipses  the  solar  activity  was 
decreasing. 

The  eclipse  of  1900  nearly  coincided  with  a  Sun- 
spot  minimum,  and  the  Corona  was  strikingly  typical, 
and  almost  a  duplicate  of  the  Corona  of  January  i,  1889. 


62  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

The  photographs  show  the  polar  fans  with  remarkable 
beauty,  and  the  inner  Corona  and  polar  rays  full  of  inter- 
esting detail. 

We  are  still  a  long  way  off  from  being  able  to  state 
with  perfect  confidence  what  the  Corona  is.  It  is  cer- 
tainly a  complex  phenomenon,  and  the  various  streamers 
which  we  see  are  not,  as  was  at  one  time  imagined,  a  simple 
manifestation  of  one  radiant  light.  Mrs.  Todd  thus  con- 
veniently summarises  the  present  state  of  our  knowl- 
edge : — "  The  true  corona  appears  to  be  a  triple  phenom- 
enon. First,  there  are  the  polar  rays,  nearly  straight 
throughout  their  visible  extent.  Gradually,  as  these  rays 
start  out  from  points  on  the  solar  disc  farther  and  farther 
removed  from  the  poles,  they  acquire  increasing  curvature, 
and  very  probably  extend  into  the  equatorial  regions,  but 
are  with  great  difficulty  traceable  there,  because  projected 
upon  and  confused  with  the  filaments  having  their  origin 
remote  from  the  poles.  Then  there  is  the  inner  equatorial 
corona,  apparently  connected  intimately  with  truly  solar 
phenomena,  quite  like  the  polar  rays ;  while  the  third  ele- 
ment in  the  composite  is  the  outer  equatorial  corona, 
made  up  of  the  long  ecliptic  streamers,  for  the  most  part 
visible  only  to  the  naked  eye,  also  existing  as  a  solar 
appendage,  and  possibly  merging  into  the  zodiacal  light. 
The  total  eclipses  of  a  half  century  have  cleared  up  a  few 
obscurities,  and  added  many  perplexities.  There  is  little 
or  no  doubt  about  the  substantial,  if  not  entire,  reality  of 
the  corona  as  a  truly  solar  phenomenon.  The  Moon, 
if  it  has  anything  at  all  to  do  with  the  corona,  aside  from 
the  fact  of  its  coming  in  conveniently  between  Sun  and 
Earth,  so  as  to  allow  a  brief  glimpse  of  something  start- 
lingly  beautiful  which  otherwise  could  never  have  been 
known,  is  probably  responsible  for  only  a  very  narrow 
ring  of  the  inner  radiance  of  pretty  even  breadth  all  round. 
This  diffraction  effect  is  accepted  ;  but  the  problem  still 


ECLIPSE  OF  THE  SUN   IS  AT  AN   END.          63 

remains  how  wide  this  annulus  may  be,  and  whether  it 
may  vary  in  width  from  one  eclipse  to  another.  These 
questions  once  settled,  the  spurious  structure  may  then  be 
excerpted  from  the  true.  Indeed  the  coronal  streamers, 
delicately  curving  and  interlacing,  may  tell  the  whole 
story  of  the  Sun's  radiant  energy." 


CHAPTER   VII. 

WHAT   IS   OBSERVED   AFTER  THE  TOTAL   PHASE  OF 
AN   ECLIPSE  OF  THE  SUN   IS   AT   AN   END. 

IN  a  certain  sense,  a  description  of  the  incidents  which 
precede  the  total  disappearance  of  the  Sun  in  connection 
with  a  total  Eclipse  will  apply  more  or  less  to  the  second 
half  of  the  phenomenon  ;  only,  of  course,  in  the  reverse 
order  and  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  compass.  The 
Corona  having  appeared  first  of  all  on  the  W.  side  of  the 
Sun,  then  having  shown  itself  complete  as  surrounding 
the  Sun,  will  begin  to  disappear  on  the  W.  side,  and  will 
be  last  seen  on  the  E.  side.  Baily's  Beads  may  or  may 
not  come  into  view ;  the  Sun  will  reappear  first  as  a  very 
thin  crescent,  gradually  widening;  the  quasi-nocturnal 
darkness  visible  on  the  Earth  will  cease,  and  eventually 
the  Moon  will  completely  pass  away  from  off  the  Sun,  and 
the  Sun  once  again  will  exhibit  a  perfect  circle  of  light. 

Whilst  there  is  so  much  to  look  for  and  look  at  and 
think  about,  one  thing  must  be  sought  for  instantly  after 
totality,  or  it  will  be  gone  forever,  and  that  is  the 
Moon's  shadow  on  the  Earth.  We  have  already  seen  in 
the  last  chapter  the  startling  rapidity  and  solemnity  with 
which  the  shadow  seems  to  rush  forward  to  the  observer 
from  the  horizon  on  the  western  side  of  the  Meridian. 
Passing  over  him,  or  even,  so  to  speak,  through  him,  it 


64  THE  STORY  OF   ECLIPSES. 

travels  onwards  in  an  easterly  direction  and  very  soon 
vanishes.  Its  visibility  at  all  depends  a  good  deal  upon 
whether  the  observer,  who  is  looking  for  it,  is  sufficiently 
raised  above  the  adjacent  country  to  be  able  to  command 
at  least  a  mile  or  two  of  ground.  If  he  is  in  a  hollow,  he 
will  have  but  little  chance  of  seeing  the  shadow  at  all : 
on  the  other  hand,  if  he  is  on  the  top  of  a  considerable  hill 
(or  high  upon  the  side  of  a  hill),  commanding  the  horizon 
for  a  distance  of  10  or  20  miles,  he  will  have  a  fair  chance 
of  seeing  the  shadow.  Sir  G.  B.  Airy  states,  in  1851, 
"  i\ly  eye  was  caught  by  a  duskiness  in  the  S.E.,  and 
I  immediately  perceived  that  it  was  the  Eclipse  shadow 
in  the  air,  travelling  away  in  the  direction  of  the  shadow's 
path.  For  at  least  six  seconds,  this  shadow  remained 
in  sight,  far  more  conspicuous  to  the  eye  than  I  had  an- 
ticipated. I  was  once  caught  in  a  very  violent  hail  and 
thunder-storm  on  the  Table-land  of  the  County  of  Suth- 
erland called  the  '  Moin,'  and  I  at  length  saw  the  storm 
travel  away  over  the  North  Sea ;  and  this  view  of  the 
receding  Eclipse-shadow,  though  by  no  means  so  dark, 
reminded  me  strongly  of  the  receding  storm.  In  ten  or 
twelve  seconds  all  appearance  of  the  shadow  had  passed 
away." 

Perhaps  this  may  be  a  convenient  place  to  make  a  note 
of  what  seems  to  be  a  fact,  partly  established  at  any  rate, 
even  if  not  wholly  established,  namely — that  there  seems 
some  connection  between  eclipses  of  the  Sun  and  Earth- 
quakes. A  German  physicist  named  Ginzel  *  has  found  a 
score  of  coincidences  between  solar  eclipses  and  earth- 
quakes in  California  in  the  years  between  1850  and  1888 
inclusive.  Of  course  there  were  eclipses  without  earth- 
quakes and  earthquakes  without  eclipses,  but  twenty  coin- 
•  cidences  in  thirty-eight  years  seems  suggestive  of  something. 

*  Himmel  und  Erde,  vol.  ii.  pp.  255,  309  ;  1890. 


CHINESE   ECLIPSES   OF   THE   SUN.  65 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

ECLIPSES  OF  THE    SUN    MENTIONED    IN    HIS- 
TORY— CHINESE. 

THIS  is  the  first  of  several  chapters  which  will  be  de- 
voted to  historical  eclipses.  Of  course  the  total  eclipse 
of  the  Sun  of  August  9,  1896,  observed  in  Norway  .and 
elsewhere,  is,  in  a  certain  sense,  an  eclipse  mentioned  in 
history,  but  that  is  not  what  is  intended  by  the  title  pre- 
fixed to  these  chapters.  By  the  term  "  historical  eclipses," 
as  used  here,  I  mean  eclipses  which  have  been  recorded 
by  ancient  historians  and  chroniclers  who  were  not  neces- 
sarily astronomers,  and  who  wrote  before  the  invention 
of  the  telescope.  The  date  of  this  may  be  conveniently 
taken  as  a  dividing  line,  so  that  I  shall  deal  chiefly  with 
eclipses  which  occurred  before,  say,  the  year  1600.  There 
is  another  reason  why  some  such  date  as  this  is  a  suitable 
one  from  which  to  take  a  new  departure.  Without  at  all 
avowing  that  superstition  ceased  on  the  Earth  in  the  year 
1600  (for  there  is  far  too  large  a  residuum  still  available 
now,  300  years  later),  it  may  yet  be  said  that  the  Revival 
of  Letters  did  do  a  good  deal  to  divest  celestial  phenom- 
ena of  those  alarming  and  panic-causing  attributes  which 
undoubtedly  attached  to  them  during  the  earlier  ages  of 
the  world  and  during  the  "Dark  Ages"  in  Western 
Europe  quite  as  much  as  during  any  other  period  of  the 
world's  history.  No  one  can  examine  the  writings  of  the 
ancient  Greek  and  Roman  historians,  and  the  chronicles 
kept  in  the  monasteries  of  Western  Europe  by  their 
monkish  occupiers,  without  being  struck  by  the  influence 
of  terrror  which  such  events  as  eclipses  of  the  Sun  and 
Moon  and  such  'Celestial  visitors  as  Comets  and  Shooting 
Stars  exercised  far  and  wide.  And  this  influence  over- 
spread, not  only  the  unlettered  lower  orders,  but  many  of 
5 


66  THE   STORY  OF   ECLIPSES. 

those  in  far  higher  stations  of  life  who,  one  might  have 
hoped,  would  have  been  exempt  from  such  feelings  of 
mental  distress  as  they  often  exhibited.  Illustrations  of 
this  fact  will  be  adduced  in  due  course. 

It  has  always  been  supposed  that  the  earliest  recorded 
eclipse  of  the  Sun  is  one  thus  mentioned  in  an  ancient 
Chinese  classic — the  Chou-King  (sometimes  spelt  Shou- 
Ching).  The  actual  words  used  may  be  translated  : — 
"  On  the  first  clay  of  the  last  month  of  Autumn  the  Sun 
and  Moon  did  not  meet  harmoniously  in  Fang."  To  say 
the  least  of  it,  this  is  a  moderately  ambiguous  announce- 
ment, and  Chinese  scholars,  both  astronomers  and  non- 
astronomers,  have  spent  a  good  deal  of  time  in  examining 
the  various  eclipses  which  might  be  thought  to  be  repre- 
sented by  the  inharmonious  meeting  of  the  Sun  and  the 
Moon  as  above  recorded.  To  cut  a  long  story  short,  it  is 
generally  agreed  that  we  are  here  considering  one  or  other 
of  two  eclipses  of  the  Sun  which  occurred  in  the  years 
2136  or  2128  B.C.  respectively,  the  Sun  being  then  in  the 
sidereal  division  "  Fang,"  a  locality  determined  by  the 
stars  $  8  IT  and  p  Scorpii,  and  which  includes  a  few  small 
stars  in  Libra  and  Ophiuchus  to  the  N.  and  in  Lupus  to 
the  S.  How  this  simple  and  neat  conclusion,  which  I 
have  stated  with  such  apparent  dogmatism,  was  arrived 
at  is  quite  another  question,  and  it  would  hardly  be  con- 
sistent with  the  purpose  of  this  volume  to  attempt  to 
work  it  out  in  detail,  but  a  few  points  presented  in  a  sum- 
mary form  may  be  interesting. 

In  the  first  place,  be  it  understood,  that  though  it  is 
fashionable  to  cast  ridicule  on  John  Chinaman,  especially 
by  way  of  retaliation  for  his  calling  us  "  Barbarians,"  yet 
it  is  a  sure  and  certain  fact  that  not  only  have  the  Chinese 
during  many  centuries  been  very  attentive  students  of  As- 
tronomy, but  that  we  Westerns  owe  a  good  deal  of  our 
present  knowledge  in  certain  departments  to  the  informa- 


CHINESE    ECLIPSES   OF  THE   SUN.  67 

tion  stored  up  by  Chinese  observers  during  many  cen* 
turies  both  before  and  after  the  Christian  Era. 

This,  however,  is  a  digression.  The  circumstances  of 
this  eclipse  as  regards  its  identification  having  been  care- 
fully examined  by  Mr.  R.  W.  Rothman,*  in  1839  were 
further  reviewed  by  Professor  S.  M.  Russell  in  a  paper 
published  in  the  proceedings  of  the  Pekin  Oriental  Soci- 
ety, f  The  substance  of  the  case  is  that  in  the  reign  of 
Chung-K'ang,  the  fourth  Emperor  of  the  Hsia  Dynasty, 
there  occurred  an  eclipse  of  the  Sun,  which  is  interesting 
not  only  for  its  antiquity,  but  also  for  the  dread  fate  of 
the  two  Astronomers  Royal  of  the  period,  who  were  taken 
by  surprise  at  its  occurrence,  and  were  unprepared  to  per- 
form the  customary  rites.  These  rites  were  the  shooting 
of  arrows  and  the  beating  of  drums,  gongs,  etc.,  with  the 
object  of  delivering  the  Sun  from  the  monster  which 
threatened  to  devour  it.  The  two  astronomers  by  virtue 
of  their  office  shoulcl  have  superintended  these  rites. 
They  were,  however,  drunk  and  incapable  of  performing 
their  duties,  so  that  great  turmoil  ensued,  and  it  was  con- 
sidered that  the  land  was  exposed  to  the  anger  of  the 
gods.  By  way  of  appeasing  the  gods,  and  of  suitably 
punishing  the  two  State  officials  for  their  neglect  and  per- 
sonal misconduct,  they  were  forthwith  put  to  death,  a 
punishment  which  may  be  said  to  have  been  somewhat 
excessive,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  eclipse  was  not  a 
total  but  only  a  partial  one.  An  anonymous  verse  runs : — 

Here  lie  the  bodies  of  Ho  and  Hi, 
Whose  fate  though  sad  was  visible — 

Being  hanged  because  they  could  not  spy 
Th'  eclipse  which  was  invisible. 

*  Memoirs,  R.A.S.,  vol.  xi.  p.  47. 

t  Republished  in  the  Observatory  Magazine,  vol.  xviii.  p.  323, 
et  seq.,  1895. 


68  THE   STORY  OF   ECLIPSES. 

It  appears  beyond  all  reasonable  doubt  that  the  eclipse 
in  question  occurred  on  October  22,  2136  B.C.  The  pre- 
liminary difficulties  to  be  got  over  in  arriving  at  the  date 
arose  from  the  fact  that  there  was  an  uncertainty  of  108 
years  in  the  date  when  the  Emperor  Chung  K'ang  ascend- 
ed the  throne ;  and  within  these  limits  of  time  there  were 
14  possible  years  in  which  an  eclipse  of  the  Sun  in  Fang 
could  have  occurred.  Then  the  number  was  further  lim- 
ited by  the  necessity  of  finding  an  eclipse  which  could 
have  been  seen  at  the  place  which  was  the  Emperor's 
capital.  The  site  of  this,  again,  was  a  matter  of  some 
uncertainty.  However,  step  by  step,  by  a  judicious  pro- 
cess of  exhaustion,  the  year  2136  B.C.  was  arrived  at  as 
the  alternative  to  the  previously  received  date  of  2128  B.C. 
Considering  that  we  are  dealing  with  a  matter  which  hap- 
pened full  4000  years  ago,  it  may  fairly  be  said  that  this 
discrepancy  is  not  perhaps  much  to  be  wondered  at  see- 
ing what  disputes  often  happen  nowadays  as  to  the 
precise  date  of  events  which  may  have  occurred  but  a 
few  years  or  even  a  few  months  before  the  controversy 
springs  up. 

Professor  Russell  says  that : — "  Some  admirers  of  the 
Chinese  cite  this  eclipse  as  a  proof  of  the  early  proficiency 
attained  by  the  Chinese  in  astronomical  calculations.  I 
find  no  ground  for  that  belief  in  the  text.  Indeed,  for 
many  centuries  later,  the  Chinese  were  unable  to  predict 
the  position  of  the  Sun  accurately  among  the  stars.  They 
relied  wholly  on  observation  to  settle  their  calendar,  year 
by  year,  and  seem  'to  have  drawn  no  conclusions  or  de- 
ductions from  their  observations.  Their  calendar  was 
continually  falling  into  confusion.  Even  at  the  beginning 
of  the  present  dynasty,  when  the  Jesuits  came  to  China,  the 
Chinese  astronomers  were  unable  to  calculate  accurately 
the  length  of  the  shadow  of  the  sun  at  the  equinoxes  and 
solstices.  It  seems  to  me  therefore  very  improbable  that 


CHINESE   ECLIPSES  OF  THE  SUN.  69 

they  could  have  been  able  to  calculate  and  predict 
eclipses." 

I  am  not  at  all  sure  that  this  is  quite  a  fair  presenta- 
tion of  the  case.  I  do  not  remember  ever  to  have  seen 
the  power  to  predict  eclipses  ascribed  to  the  Chinese,  but 
it  is  a  simple  matter  of  fact  that  we  owe  to  them  during 
many  centuries  unique  records  of  a  vast  number  of  celes- 
tial phenomena.  Their  observations  of  comets  may  be 
singled  out  as  having  been  of  inestimable  value  to  various 
19th-century  computers,  especially  E.  Biot  and  J.  R.  Hind. 

The  second  recorded  eclipse  of  the  Sun  would  seem 
to  be  also  due  to  the  Chinese.  Confucius  relates  that 
during  the  reign  of  the  Emperor  Yew-Wang  an  eclipse 
took  place.  This  Emperor  reigned  between  781  B.C.  and 
771  B.C.,  and  it  has  been  generally  thought  that  the  eclipse 
of  775  B.C.  is  the  one  referred  to,  but  Johnson  doubts 
this  on  the  ground  that  this  eclipse  was  chiefly  visible  in 
the  circumpolar  regions,  and  if  seen  at  all  in  China 
must  have  been  of  very  small  dimensions.  He  leans  to 
the  eclipse  of  June  4,  780  B.C.  as  the  only  large  one 
which  happened  within  the  limits  of  time  stated  above. 

An  ancient  Chinese  historical  work  known  as  the 
Chun-  Tsew,  written  by  Confucius,  makes  mention  of  a 
large  number  of  solar  eclipses  which  occurred  before  the 
Christian  Era.  This  work  came  under  the  notice  of  M. 
Gaubil,  one  of  the  French  Jesuit  missionaries  who 
laboured  m  China  some  century  and  a  half  ago,  and  he 
first  gave  an  account  of  it  in  his  Trattt  de  la  Chronolo- 
gie  Chinoise,  published  at  Paris  in  1 770.* 

The  Chun-Tseiv  is  said  to  be  the  only  work  really 
written  by  Kung-Foo-Tze,  commonly  known  as  Confu- 

*  A  good  deal  of  information  respecting  Chinese  eclipse  records, 
so  far  as  known  up  to  the  beginning  of  the  igth-century,  will  be 
found  in  Delambre's  Histoire  di  f  Astronomic  Ancienne.  Paris, 
18x7. 


7o 


THE  STORY  OF   ECLIPSES. 


cius,  the  other  treatises  attributed  to  him  having  been 
compiled  by  disciples  of  his  either  during  his  life-time  or 
after  his  decease.  The  German  chronologist,  Ideler,  was 
acquainted  with  this  work,  and  in  a  paper  of  his  own, 
presented  to  the  Berlin  Academy,  remarked : — "  What 
gives  great  interest  to  this  work  is  the  account  of  36  solar 
eclipses  observed  in  China,  the  first  of  which  was  on  Feb. 
22,  720  B.C.,  and  the  last  on  July  22,  495  B.C." 

In  1863  Mr.  John  Williams,  then  Assistant  Secretary 
of  the  Royal  Astronomical  Society,  communicated  to  the 
Society  in  a  condensed  form  the  particulars  of  these 
eclipses  as  related  in  Confucius's  book,  together  with 
some  remarks  on  the  book  itself.  The  Chun-  Tsew  treats 
of  a  part  of  the  history  of  the  confederated  nations  into 
which  China  was  divided  during  the  Chow  Dynasty,  that 
is  between  1122  B.C.  and  255  B.C.  The  particular  period 
dealt  with  is  that  which  extended  from  722  B.C.  to  479 
B.C.  It  was  during  the  latter  part  of  this  interval  of  about 
242  years  that  Confucius  flourished.  But  the  book  is  not 
quite  a  general  history,  for  it  is  more  particularly  devoted 
to  the  small  State  of  Loo,  of  which  Confucius  was  a  native, 
where  he  passed  a  great  portion  of  his  life,  and  where  he 
was  advanced  to  the  highest  honours.  It  contains  the 
history  of  twelve  princes  of  this  State  with  incidental 
notices  of  the  other  confederated  nations.  The  number 
of  the  years  of  each  reign  is  accurately  determined,  and 
the  events  are  classed  under  the  years  in  which  they  oc- 
curred. Each  year  is  divided  into  sections  according  to 
the  four  seasons,  Spring,  Summer,  Autumn,  Winter,  and 
the  sections  are  subdivided  into  months,  and  often  the 
days  are  distinguished.  The  name  Chun-  Tsew  is  said  to 
have  been  given  to  this  work  from  its  having  been  com- 
menced in  Spring  and  finished  in  Autumn,  but  Williams 
thinks  that  the  name  rather  refers  to  the  fact  that  its  con- 
tents are  divided  into  seasons  as  stated.  The  style  in 


CHINESE   ECLIPSES   OF   THE   SUN.  71 

which  it  is  written  is  very  concise,  being  a  bare  mention 
of  facts  without  comment,  and  although  on  this  account  it 
might  appear  to  us  dry  and  uninteresting,  it  is  much  valued 
by  the  Chinese  as  a  model  of  the  ancient  style  of  writing. 
It  forms  one  of  the  Woo-King  or  Five  Classical  Books, 
without  a  thorough  knowledge  of  which,  and  of  the  Sze- 
Shoo  or  Four  Books,  no  man  can  attain  to  any  post  of 
importance  in  the  Chinese  Empire. 

The  account  of  each  eclipse  is  but  a  little  more  than  a 
brief  mention  of  its  occurrence  at  a  certain  time.  The 
following  is  an  example  of  the  entries  : — "  In  the  58th 
year  of  the  32nd  cycle  in  the  5ist  year  of  the  Emperor 
King- Wang,  of  the  Chow  Dynasty,  the  3rd  year  of  Yin- 
Kung,  Prince  of  Loo,  in  the  spring,  the  second  moon,  on 
the  day  called  Kea-Tsze,  there  was  an  eclipse  of  the  Sun." 
This  58th  year  of  the  32nd  cycle  answers  to  720  B.C. 
Mr.  Williams  in  the  year  1863  presented  to  the  Royal 
Astronomical  Society  a  paper  setting  out  the  whole  of  the 
eclipses  of  which  I  have  cited  but  one  example,  convert- 
ing, of  course,  the  very  complicated  Chinese  dates  into 
European  dates. 

These  Chinese  records  of  eclipses  were  in  1864  sub- 
jected to  examination  by  the  late  Sir  G.  B.  Airy,*  with 
results  which  were  highly  noteworthy,  and  justify  us  in 
reposing  much  confidence  in  Chinese  astronomical  work. 
Airy  remarks  : — "  The  period  through  which  these  eclipses 
extend  is  included  in  the  time  through  which  calculations 
of  eclipses  have  been  made  in  the  French  work  entitled 
L 'Art  de  verifier  les  Dates.  I  have  several  times  had 
occasion  to  recalculate  with  great  accuracy  eclipses  which 
are  noted  in  that  work  (edition  of  1820),  and  I  have  found 
that,  to  the  limits  of  accuracy  to  which  it  pretends,  and 
which  are  abundantly  sufficient  for  the  present  purpose, 

*  Month,  Not.,  R.A.S.,  vol.  xxiv.  p.  41. 


72 


THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 


it  is  perfectly  trustworthy.  I  have  therefore  made  a  com- 
parison of  the  Chun-  Tsew  eclipses  with  those  of  L'Art 
de  verifier  les  Dates.  The  result  is  interesting.  Of  the 
36  eclipses,  32  agree  with  those  of  the  Art  de  verifier  les 
Dates,  not  only  in  the  day,  but  also  in  the  general  track  of 
the  eclipse  as  given  in  the  Art  de  verifier,  which  appears 
to  show  sufficiently  that  the  eclipse  would  be  visible  in 
that  province  of  China  to  which  the  Chun-Tsew  is  re- 
ferred." Airy  then  proceeds  to  point  out  that,  with 
regard  to  the  four  eclipses  which  he  could  not  confirm, 
there  cannot  have  been  eclipses  in  April  645  B.C.  or  in 
June  592  B.C.  It  appears,  however,  from  a  note  by 
Williams,  that  the  date  attached  to  the  eclipse  of  645  B.C. 
is,  in  reality,  an  erroneous  repetition  (in  the  Chinese  mode 
of  expressing  it)  of  that  attached  to  the  next  following 
one,  and  in  the  absence  of  correct  date  it  must  be  rejected. 
In  the  record  of  592  B.C.,  June  16,  no  clerical  error  is 
found,  and  there  must  be  an  error  of  a  different  class. 
The  eclipses  of  552  B.C.,  September  19,  and  549  B.C., 
July  1 8,  to  which  there  is  nothing  corresponding  in  the 
Art  de  verifier,  are  in  a  different  category.  These  occur 
in  the  lunations  immediately  succeeding  552  B.C.,  August 
20,  and  549  B.C.,  June  19  respectively,  and  there  is  no 
doubt  that  those  which  agree  with  the  Art  de  verifier 
were  real  eclipses.  Now  there  cannot  be  eclipses  visible 
at  the  same  place  in  successive  lunations,  because  the 
difference  of  the  Moon's  longitudes  is  about  29°,  and  the 
difference  of  latitudes  is  therefore  nearly  3°,  which  is 
greater  than  the  sum  of  the  diameters  of  the  Sun  and 
Moon  increased  by  any  possible  change  of  parallax  for  the 
same  place.  These,  therefore,  were  not  real  eclipses.  It 
seems  probable  that  the  nominal  days  were  set  down  by 
the  observer  in  his  memorandum  book  as  days  on  which 
eclipses  were  to  be  looked  for.  Airy  conjectured  that 
the  eclipses  of  552  B.C.,  August  20,  and  549  B.C.,  June  19, 


CHINESE   ECLIPSES   OF  THE  SUN.  73 

were  observed  by  one  and  the  same  person,  and  that  he 
possessed  science  enough  to  make  him  connect  the  solar 
eclipses  with  the  change  of  the  Moon,  but  not  enough 
to  give  him  any  idea  of  the  limitations  to  the  visibility  of 
an  eclipse. 

On  a  subsequent  occasion  Mr.  Williams  laid  before 
the  Society  a  further  list  of  solar  eclipses  observed  in 
China,  and  extending  from  481  B.C.  to  the  Christian  Era. 
He  collected  these  from  a  Chinese  historical  work,  en- 
titled Tung- Keen- Kang-Muh.  This  work,  which  runs  to 
101  volumes,  contains  a  summary  of  Chinese  history  from 
the  earliest  times  to  the  end  of  the  Yuen  Dynasty,  A.  D. 
1368,  and  was  first  published  about  1473.  The  copy  in 
Mr.  Williams's  possession  was  published  in  1808.  The 
text  is  very  briefly  worded,  and  consists  merely  of  an  ac- 
count of  the  accessions  and  deaths  of  the  emperors  and 
of  the  rulers  of  the  minor  states,  with  some  of  the  more 
remarkable  occurrences  in  each  reign.  The  appointments 
and  deaths  of  various  eminent  personages  are  also  noticed, 
together  with  special  calamities  such  as  earthquakes, 
inundations,  storms,  etc.  The  astronomical  allusions  in- 
clude eclipses  and  comets.  Amongst  the  eclipses  are 
also  all,  or  most  of  those  which  are  recorded  in  the  Chun- 
Tsew  as  having  occurred  prior  to  479  B.C.  Though  no 
particular  expressions  are  used  to  define  the  exact  char- 
acter of  the  eclipses,  it  is  to  be  presumed  that  some  of 
them  must  have  been  total,  because  it  is  stated  that  the 
stars  were  visible,  albeit  that  seemingly  in  only  one  in- 
stance is  a  word  attached  which  specifically  expresses  the 
idea  of  totality,  Here  again  all  the  dates  were  expressed 
in  Chinese  style,  but,  as  published  by  Williams,  were 
rendered,  as  before,  in  European  style  by  aid  of  chrono- 
logical tables,  published  about  1860  in  Japan.  Mr.  Wil- 
liams, in  his  second  paper,  from  which  I  have  been  quot- 
ing, states  that  he  brought  his  published  account  down  to 


74  THE   STORY  OF   ECLIPSES. 

the  Christian  Era  only  as  a  matter  of  convenience,  but 
that  he  had  in  hand  a  further  selection  of  eclipses  from 
the  Tung-Keen-Kang-Muh,  the  interval  from  the  Chris- 
tian Era  to  the  4th  century  A.D.  yielding  nearly  100  ad- 
ditional eclipses.  This  further  transcript  has  not  yet  been 
published,  but  remains  in  MS.  in  the  Library  of  the  Royal 
Astronomical  Society.  Mr.  Williams  died  in  1874  at  the 
age  of  77,  one  of  the  most  experienced  Chinese  scholars 
of  the  century. 

It  is  remarkable  that  none  of  the  Chinese  annals  to 
which  reference  has  been  made  include  any  mention  of 
eclipses  of  the  Moon  ;  but  the  records  of  Comets  are  ex- 
ceedingly numerous  and,  as  I  have  already  stated,  have 
proved  of  the  highest  value  to  astronomers  who  have  been 
called  upon  to  investigate  the  ancient  history  of  Comets. 


CHAPTER   IX. 

ARE  ECLIPSES  ALLUDED  TO   IN   THE   BIBLE? 

AN  interesting  question  has  been  suggested :  Are 
there  any  allusions  to  eclipses  to  be  found  in  Holy  Scrip- 
ture ?  It  seems  safe  to  assert  that  there  is  at  least  one, 
and  that  there  may  be  three  or  four. 

In  Amos  viii.  9  we  read  :— "  I  will  cause  the  Sun  to  go 
down  at  noon,  and  I  will  darken  the  Earth  in  the  clear 
day."  This  language  is  so  very  explicit  and  applies  so 
precisely  to  the  circumstances  of  a  solar  eclipse  that  com- 
mentators are  generally  agreed  that  it  can  have  but  one 
meaning ;  *  and  accordingly  it  is  considered  to  refer  with- 
out doubt  to  one  or  other  of  the  following  eclipses : — 791 

*  Less  certain  is  the  allusion  in  Amos  v.  8  :— "  Seek  him  that 
.  .  .  maketh  the  day  dark  with  night." 


ARE  ECLIPSES  ALLUDED  TO  IN  THE  BIBLE?     75 

B.C.,  77 1  B.C. ,  770  B.C.,  or  763  B.C.  Archbishop  Usher,*  the 
well-known  chronologist,  suggested  the  first  three  more 
than  two  centuries  ago,  whilst  the  eclipse  of  763  B.C.  was 
suggested  in  recent  times  and  is  now  generally  accepted 
as  the  one  referred  to.  The  circumstances  connected 
with  the  discovery  and  identification  of  the  eclipse  of  763 
B.C.  are  very  interesting. 

The  date  when  Amos  wrote  is  set  down  in  the  margin 
of  our  Bibles  as  787  B.C.,  and  if  this  date  is  correct  it  fol- 
lows that  for  his  statement  to  have  been  a  prediction  he 
must  be  alluding  to  some  eclipse  of  later  date  than  787 
B.C.  This  obvious  assumption  not  only  shuts  out  the 
eclipse  of  791  B.C.,  but  opens  the  door  to  the  acceptance 
of  the  eclipse  of  763  B.C. 

Apparently  the  first  modern  writer  who  looked  into 
the  matter  after  Archbishop  Usher  was  the  German  com- 
mentator Hitzig,  who  suggested  the  eclipse  of  Feb.  9, 
784  B.C.  Dr.  Pusey  was  so  far  taken  with  this  idea  that 
he  thought  it  worth  while  to  secure  the  co-operation  of 
the  Rev.  R.  Main,  F.R.A.S.,  the  Radcliffe  Observer  at 
Oxford,  for  the  purpose  of  a  full  investigation.  Mr.  Main 
had  the  circumstances  of  that  eclipse  calculated,  with  the 
result  that  though  the  eclipse  was  indeed  total  in  Africa 
and  Hindostan,  yet  at  Samaria  it  was  only  partial,  and  of 
no  considerable  magnitude.  Dr.  Pusey 's  words,  summing 
up  the  situation  are  : — "  The  eclipse  then  would  hardly 
have  been  noticeable  at  Samaria,  certainly  very  far  indeed 
from  being  an  eclipse  of  such  magnitude,  as  could  in  any 
degree  correspond  with  the  expression,  '  I  will  cause  the 
Sun  to  go  down  at  noon.'  "  .  .  .  "  Beforehand,  one  should 
not  have  expected  that  an  eclipse  of  the  Sun,  being  itself 
a  regular  natural  phenomenon,  and  having  no  connection 
with  the  moral  government  of  God,  should  have  been  the 

*  Annales,  A.M.,  3213,  p.  45.     Folio  Ed. 


76  THE   STORY   OF   ECLIPSES. 

subject  of  the  prophet's  prediction.  Still  it  had  a  religious 
impressiveness  then,  above  what  it  has  now,  on  account 
of  that  wide-prevailing  idolatry  of  the  Sun.  It  exhibited 
the  object  of  their  false  worship,  shorn  of  its  light,  and 
passive." 

Dr.  Pusey's  Commentary  from  which  the  above  quota- 
tion is  made*  bears  the  date  1873,  but  he  appears  not  to 
have  been  acquainted  with  the  important  discovery  an- 
nounced no  less  than  six  years  previously  by  the  distin- 
guished Oriental  scholar,  Sir  H.  C.  Rawlinson.  The  dis- 
covery to  which  I  allude  is  a  contemporary  record  on  an 
Assyrian  tablet  of  a  solar  eclipse  which  was  seen  at  Nine- 
veh about  24  years  after  the  reputed  date  of  Amos's 
prophecy.  This  tablet  had  been  described  by  Dr. 
Hinckes  in  the  British  Museum  Report  for  1854,  but  its 
chronological  importance  had  not  then  been  realised.  Sir 
H.  Rawlinson  f  speaks  of  the  tablet  as  a  record  of  or 
register  of  the  annual  archons  at  Nineveh.  He  says  : — 
"  In  the  eighteenth  year  before  the  accession  of  Tiglath- 
Pileser  there  is  a  notice  to  the  following  effect — '  In  the 
month  Sivan  an  eclipse  of  the  Sun  took  place '  and  to 
mark  the  great  importance  of  the  event  a  line  is  drawn 
across  the  tablet,  although  no  interruption  takes  place  in 
the  official  order  of  the  Eponymes.  Here  then  we  have 
notice  of  a  solar  eclipse  which  was  visible  at  Nineveh 
which  occurred  within  90  days  of  the  (vernal)  equinox 
(taking  that  as  the  normal  commencement  of  the  year) 
and  which  we  may  presume  to  have  been  total  from  the 
prominence  given  to  the  record,  and  these  are  conditions 
which  during  a  century  before  and  after  the  era  of  Nabo- 
nassar  are  alone  fulfilled  by  the  eclipse  which  took  place  on 
June  15,  763," 

This  record  was  submitted  to  Sir  G.  B.  Airy  and  Mr. 

*  Minor  Prophets,  p.  217.         f  Athenceum,  May  18,  1867. 


ARE  ECLIPSES  ALLUDED  TO  IN  THE  BIBLE?     77 

J.  R.  Hind,  and  the  circumstances  of  the  eclipse  were 
computed  by  the  latter,  by  the  aid  of  Hansen's  Lunar 
Tables  and  Le  Verrier's  Solar  Tables.  The  result,  when 
plotted  on  a  map,  showed  that  the  shadow  line  just 
missed  the  site  of  Nineveh,  but  that  a  very  slight  and 
unimportant  deviation  from  the  result  of  the  Tables  would 
bring  the  shadow  over  the  city  of  Nineveh,  where  the 
eclipse  was  observed,  and  over  Samaria,  where  it  was  pre- 
dicted. The  identification  of  this  eclipse,  both  as  regards 
its  time  and  place,  has  also  proved  a  matter  of  importance 
in  the  revision  of  Scripture  chronology,  by  lowering,  to 
the  extent  of  25  years,  the  reigns  of  the  kings  of  the  Jew- 
ish monarchy.  The  need  for  this  revision  is  further  con- 
firmed, if  we  assume  that  the  celebrated  incident  in  the 
life  of  King  Hezekiah,  described  as  the  retrogradation  of 
the  Sun's  shadow  on  the  dial  of  Ahaz,  is  to  be  interpreted 
as  connected  with  a  partial  eclipse  of  the  Sun. 

We  will  now  consider  this  event,  and  see  what  can  be 
made  out  of  it.  One  Scripture  record  (2  Kings  xx.  1 1)  is  as 
follows  : — "  And  Isaiah  the  prophet  cried  unto  the  Lord  : 
and  he  brought  the  shadow  10  degrees  backward,  by  which 
it  had  gone  down  in  the  dial  of  Ahaz."  This  passage  has 
greatly  exercised  commentators  of  all  creeds  in  different 
ages  of  the  Church ;  and  the  most  divergent  opinions 
have  been  expressed  as  to  what  happened.  This  has  been 
due  to  two  causes  jointly.  Not  only  is  the  occurrence  in- 
comprehensible, looked  at  on  the  surface  of  the  words,  but 
we  are  entirely  ignorant  of  the  construction  of  the  so- 
called  "  dial "  of  Ahaz,  and  have  little  or  no  material  di- 
rectly available  from  outside  sources  to  enable  us  to 
come  to  a  clear  and  safe  conclusion.  No  doubt,  however, 
it  was  a  sun-dial,  or  gnomon  of  some  kind.  Bishop 
Wordsworth  lays  stress  on  the  apparent  assertion  that 
the  miracle  was  not  wrought  on  any  other  dial  at  Jerusa- 
lem except  that  of  Ahaz,  the  father  of  Hezekiah,  and  he 


78  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

treats  as  a  confirmation  of  this  the  statement  in  2  Chron. 
xxxii.  31,  that  ambassadors  came  from  Babylon  to  Jeru- 
salem, being  curious  to  learn  all  about  "  the  wonder  that 
had  been  done  in  the  land  "  (i.e.  in  the  land  of  Judah). 
But  there  is  more  taken  for  granted  here  than  is  necessary t 
or,  as  we  shall  presently  see,  is  justifiable.  To  begin  with, 
how  do  we  know  that  there  was  any  other  dial  at  Jeru- 
salem like  that  of  Ahaz  ?  But,  in  point  of  fact,  we  must 
make  a  new  departure  altogether,  for  it  has  been  suggest- 
ed (I  know  not  exactly  by  whom,  or  when  for  the  first 
time)  that  an  eclipse  of  the  Sun,  under  certain  circum- 
stances, would  explain  all  that  happened,  and  recon- 
cile all  that  has  to  be  reconciled.  What  happened  to 
Hezekiah  is  thought  by  many  to  imply  clearly  a  miracle, 
and  it  may  be  said  that  an  eclipse  of  the  Sun  cannot  be 
held  to  be  a  miracle  «  by  the  ordinary  definition  of  the 
word.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  it  certainly  might  count 
as  such  in  the  eyes  of  ignorant  spectators,  who  know 
nothing  of  the  theory  or  practice  of  eclipses,  and  who 
would  regard  such  a  thing  as  quite  unforeseen,  unexpected, 
and  alarming.  Illustrations  of  this  might  be  multiplied 
from  all  parts  of  the  world,  in  all  ages  of  the  world's  his- 
tory. 

Let  us  see  now  what  the  argument  is,  as  it  was  worked 
out  by  the  late  Mr.  J.  W.  Bosanquet,  F.R.A.S.  Shortly 
before  the  invasion  of  Judasa  by  Sennacherib— say  in  the 
beginning  of  the  year  689  B.C. — Hezekiah  was  sick  unto 
death.  In  answer  to  his  fervent  prayer  for  recovery  the 
prophet  Isaiah  was  sent  to  him  with  this  message: — "  Thus 
saith  the  Lord,  the  God  of  David  thy  Father,  I  have  heard 
thy  prayer,  I  have  seen  thy  tears :  behold,  I  will  add  unto 
thy  days  fifteen  years  ...  and  I  will  defend  this  city,  and 

*  After  all,  do  the  circumstances  necessarily  presuppose  a  "  mir- 
acle "  ?  Hezekiah  had  only  asked  for  a  "sign."  Ina  Chron.  xxxii. 
31  the  word  "  wonder  "  is  applied  to  the  event. 


ARE  ECLIPSES  ALLUDED  TO  IN  THE  BIBLE?     79 

this  shall  be  a  sign  unto  thee  from  the  Lord,  that  the 
Lord  will  do  this  thing  that  He  hath  spoken.  Behold,  I 
will  bring  again  the  shadow  of  the  degrees,  which  is 
gone  down  in  the  sun-dial  of  Ahaz  ten  degrees  back- 
ward. So  the  Sun  returned  ten  degrees,  by  which  degrees 
it  had  gone  down"  (Isaiah  xxxviii.  5 — 8). 

In  these  words  we  evidently  have  mention  of  some  in- 
strument erected  in  Hezekiah's  palace,  in  the  days  of  his 
father  Ahaz,  for  showing  the  change  in  the  position  of  the 
shadow  cast  by  the  Sun  from  day  to  day.  This  state- 
ment is  confirmed  by  a  profane  writer,  Glycas,  who  states  : 
"  They  say  that  Ahaz,  by  some  contrivance,  had  erected 
in  his  palace  certain  steps,  which  showed  the  hours  of 
the  day,  and  also  measured  the  course  of  the  Sun." 

The  idea  involved  in  "  bringing  again  "  through  "ten 
degrees  backward,"  "  the  shadow  of  the  degrees  "  which 
had  gone  down,  is  very  noteworthy.  We  seem  intended 
to  learn  from  these  words  several  things.  For  one  thing 
(to  begin  with)  that  the  steps  (as  we  must  consider  them 
to  have  been)  on  this  sun-dial  of  Ahaz,  were  turned  away 
from  the  Sun.  For  only  in  that  position  could  they 
cast  their  shadow,  or  could  the  number  of  the  illuminated 
steps  be  varied,  upwards  or  downwards,  according  to  the 
varying  altitude  of  the  sun.  The  only  conceivable  use  of 
a  fixed  instrument  so  placed  would  be  to  show  the  rise 
and  fall  of  the  shadow  from  day  to  day,  as  the  Sun  on  the 
meridian  gradually  rose  higher  between  mid-winter  and 
mid-summer,  or  descended  lower  between  mid-summer 
and  mid-winter,  in  passing  of  course  through  the  winter 
and  summer  solstices  in  turn.  No  simple  motion  of  the 
Sun  in  its  ordinary  diurnal  progress  would  produce  the 
effect  described.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  equally  clear 
that  the  shadow  cast  by  a  gnomon  properly  adjusted  at 
the  head  of  such  a  series  of  steps  would  travel  upwards 
and  downwards  upon  the  steps  "  with  the  Sun,"  from  win- 


8o  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

ter  to  summer  and  from  summer  to  winter,  indicating  at 
each  noon  the  meridian  altitude  of  the  Sun  from  day  to . 
day,  the  latitude  of  Jerusalem  being  31°  47',  and  the  Sun's 
altitude  there  on  the  shortest  day  being  34°  41'.  If  the 
gnomon  were  raised  above  the  topmost  step  so  as  to  bring 
the  tip  of  the  gnomon  or  any  aperture  in  it  so  much  above 
the  step  as  would  be  the  equivalent  of  2°  54'  or  slightly 
more,  then  the  top  of  the  shadow  of  the  gnomon  (or  a 
spot  of  light  passing  through  a  hole  in  it)  would,  on  the 
shortest  day  of  the  year,  fall  just  beyond  the  lowermost 
step.  An  instrument  constructed  on  the  principle  just  set 
forth  was  known  to  and  used  by  the  Greek  astronomers 
of  antiquity  under  the  name  of  a  Sciotheron  or  shadow- 
taker.  Sometimes,  and  perhaps  more  properly,  it  was 
called  a  Heliotropion,  that  is,  an  instrument  designed  to 
indicate  the  turning  of  the  Sun  at  the  Tropics.*  This, 
be  it  remembered,  was  information  needed  by  the  ancients 
for  the  correct  regulation  of  the  seasons  of  the  year,  and 
of  special  service  to  the  Jews,  whose  greater  festivals  were 
fixed  in  connection  with  the  seasons.  There  is  reason  to 
believe  that  instruments  of  this  character  were  of  early  in- 
vention, going  back  perhaps  to  the  times  of  Homer,  for 
we  find  a  passage  in  the  Odyssey  (xv.  403)  as  follows  : — 
"  Above  Ortygia  lies  an  isle  of  fame 
Far  hence  remote,  and  Syria  [Syros]  is  the  name ; 
There  curious  eyes  inscrib'd  with  wonder  trace 
The  Sun's  diurnal  and  his  summer  race." 

Pope's  rendering  of  this  passage  fails,  however,  to 
bring  out  the  salient  idea  involved.  Butcher  and  Lang 
translate  the  passage  thus  :-  "  There  is  a  certain  isle  called 
Syria,  if  haply  thou  hast  heard  tell  of  it,  over  above  Or- 
tygia, and  there  are  the  turning-places  of  the  Sun." 
Merry f  calls  these  island  names  mere  "inventions  of  the 

*  Hence  the  word  "  Tropic,"  rptma  (I  turn). 

f  Homer,  Odyssey,  vol.  ii.  p.  255.     Clarendon  Press  Series. 


ARE  ECLIPSES  ALLUDED  TO  IN  THE  BIBLE?     8 1 

poet."  It  seems  to  me  a  great  question  whether  Homer's 
words  really  support  the  statement  I  have  made  just 
before  quoting  it. 

Diogenes  Laertius  refers  to  this  same  instrument  when 
he  speaks  of  the  Heliotropion  preserved  in  the  Island  of 
Syra.* 

According  to  Laertius,  Anaximanderf  was  the  first 
Greek  to  use  gnomons,  which  he  placed  on  the  Sciothera 
of  Lacedaemon,  for  the  express  purpose  of  indicating  the 
Tropics  and  Equinoxes.  These  Sciothera  were  pyramidal 
in  form. 

An  obelisk  was  the  simplest,  though  an  imperfect  form 
of  Heliotropion,  marking  indistinctly  the  length  of  a 
shadow  at  different  times  of  the  year,  especially  the  ex- 
tremes of  length  and  shortness  at  mid-winter  and  mid- 
summer. It  is  perhaps  interesting  to  mention  that  trav- 
ellers have  recorded,  in  various  places,  various  devices  for 
furnishing  information  respecting  these  matters.  For 
instance,  in  Milan  Cathedral  the  meridian  line  is  marked 
on  the  pavement,  and  along  this  line,  an  image  of  the  Sun 
coming  through  an  aperture  in  the  southern  wall  travels 
backwards  and  forwards  during  the  year  according  to  the 
seasons.  Some  Jesuit  missionaries  who  visited  China 
about  the  middle  of  the  last  century,  noticed  a  device  of 
this  character  in  operation  at  the  Observatory  at  Pekin. 
A  gnomon  had  been  set  up  in  a  low  room  and  one  of  the 
missionaries,  M.  Le  Comte,  describes  in  the  following 
words  what  they  saw  in  connection  with  this  gnomon  : — 
"  The  aperture  through  which  the  rays  of  the  Sun  came 
was  about  8  ft.  above  the  floor ;  it  is  horizontal  and 
formed  of  two  pieces  of  copper,  which  may  be  turned  so 
as  to  be  farther  from,  or  closer  to,  each  other  to  enlarge 
or  contract  the  aperture.  Lower  was  a  table  with  a  brass 

*  Life  of  Pherecydes,  sec.  6.         t  Life  of  Anaximander,  sec.  3. 
6 


82  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

plate  in  the  middle  on  which  was  traced  a  meridian  line 
15  ft.  long,  divided  by  transverse  lines  which  are  neither 
finished  nor  exact.  All  round  the  table  there  are  small 
channels  to  receive  the  water,  whereby  it  is  to  be 
levelled."* 

All  this  may  seem  rather  a  digression,  and  so  it  is,  but 
I  am  following  Mr.  Bosanquet  herein  in  order  the  better 
to  justify  the  argument  that  it  was  an  eclipse  of  the  Sun 
which  marked  the  important  incident  in  Hezekiah's  life 
which  has  been  handed  down  to  us  by  the  sacred  writer. 
It  is  evident  that  if  a  flight  of  steps  were  erected  on  the 
principles  which  were  set  forth  above,  the  steps  sloping 
upwards  and  southwards  (for  the  Northern  Hemisphere) 
from  the  lowest  step  to  within  a  few  inches  below  an 
aperture  in  the  gnomon  suitably  arranged,  the  ray  or 
-image  of  the  Sun,  whichever  it  was,  would  travel  day  by 
day  up  and  down  such  steps  between  solstice  and  solstice. 
We  may  conclude,  therefore,  that  the  instrument  which 
Hezekiah  gazed  at,  and  which  is  called  in  Scripture,  the 
"  Dial  "  of  Ahaz,  was  what  the  Greeks  would  have  termed 
a  Heliotropion. 

The  historian's  record  is  to  the  effect  that  on  the  day 
of  Hezekiah's  recovery  an  extraordinary  motion  of  the 
shadow  was  observed  on  the  "  Steps  of  Ahaz  "  by  the 
rising  of  the  shadow  "  ten  steps  "  from  the  point  to  which 
it  had  "gone  down  with  the  Sun."  This  effect  is  spoken 
of  not  as  a  miracle  but  as  "a  sign."  It  should  also  be 
remembered  that  the  cure  of  Hezekiah  was  effected  not 
by  a  miracle  but  by  a  simple  application  of  a  lump  of  figs. 
The  promise  of  his  recovery  was  confirmed  by  the  motion 
of  the  shadow  as  already  stated.  We  are  justified,  there- 
fore, in  looking  for  some  ordinary  natural  phenomenon  by 
which  to  account  for  this  peculiar  motion  on  the  dial,  and 


*  Du  Halde's  "  China?  3rd  edition,  1741,  vol.  Hi.  p.  86. 


ARE  ECLIPSES  ALLUDED  TO  IN  THE  BIBLE?    83 

something  miraculous  is  not  essential.  Dean  Milman 
once  suggested  that  the  effect  might  have  been  produced 
"  by  a  cloud  refracting  the  light."  No  doubt  a  dark 
cloud  might  produce  an  apparent  interference  with  the 
shadow,  but  it  is  well  pointed  out  by  Bosanquet  that  such 
a  cause  as  a  cloud  would  have  been  so  manifest  to  every- 
one, and  the  effect  so  transient,  that  the  phenomenon 
could  hardly  have  been  referred  to  afterwards  as  it  was  in 
another  place  as  "  a  wonder  that  was  done  in  the  land  " 
(2  Chron.  xxxii.  31). 

It  becomes,  therefore,  alike  an  obvious  and  a  simple 
explanation  that  a  shadow  caused  by  the  Sun  might  be 
deflected  downwards  on  such  an  instrument  with  a  reg- 
ular and  steady  motion  by  the  Moon  passing  slowly  over 
the  upper  part  of  the  Sun's  disc,  as  Sun  and  Moon  both 
approached  the  meridian. 

The  critical  question  has  now  to  be  raised :  "  Can 
astronomers  inform  us  whether  a  considerable  eclipse  of 
the  Sun  occurred  at  the  beginning  of  the  year  689  B.C. 
anywhere  near  noon  and  which  was  visible  at  Jerusalem  ?" 
And  the  answer  to  this  it  is  interesting  to  be  able  to  say 
is  a  plain  and  distinct  affirmative.  There  was  a  large 
partial  eclipse  of  the  Sun  on  January  11,  689  B.C.,  about 
1 1 .30  A.M.,  and  it  was  the  upper  limb  which  underwent 
eclipse. 

This  eclipse  fulfils  all  the  requirements  of  the  case, 
both  from  the  historian's  and  the  astronomer's  point  of 
view.  It  occurred  about  the  year  fixed  by  Demetrius  as 
that  of  Hezekiah's  illness  :  it  occurred  while  the  Sun  was 
approaching  and  actually  passing  the  meridian  ;  the  ob- 
scuration was  on  that  part  of  the  Sun's  disc  (namely  the 
upper  part)  which  would  have  had  the  effect  of  causing 
the  point  of  light,  which  would  seem  to  emanate  from  the 
Sun,  to  appear  to  be  depressed  downwards ;  and  it  was 
visible  at  Jerusalem.  But  there  still  remains  for  consider- 


84  THE   STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

ation  the  final  and  most  important  question,  "  Would  a 
deflection  of  light  proceeding  from  the  Sun,  regarded  as  a 
moving  body,  be  capable  of  affecting,  to  the  extent  of  '  ten 
steps,'  the  shadow  on  such  an  instrument  as  has  been 
described  ?  "  And  arising  out  of  this,  there  is  the  subor- 
dinate question,  "  Would  January,  being  the  month  when 
this  eclipse  certainly  occurred,  also  be  a  month  suitable 
for  the  exhibition  of  such  a  phenomenon  ?  " 

It  is  ascertainable  by  calculation  that  the  time  oc- 
cupied by  the  Moon  in  passing  over  the  Sun,  in  the  way 
it  did  during  this  eclipse,  was  about  2^  hours.  But  from 
the  time  of  central  conjunction,  when  the  obscuration  was 
the  greatest  and  the  point  of  light  depressed  the  most,  to 
the  time  when  the  uppermost  portion  of  the  Sun's  disc 
was  released  by  the  eastward  motion  of  the  Moon,  and 
the  light  from  that  uppermost  portion  was  again  manifest, 
was  about  20  minutes,  and  this,  therefore,  was  the  time 
during  which  the  phenomenon  of  retrogression  on  the 
"  steps  "  would  have  been  exhibited  to  the  King's  eyes. 
Assuming  then  that  the  time  when  the  ascending  shadow 
had  travelled  upwards  to  the  tenth  step  coincided,  or 
nearly  so,  with  the  time  when  the  Sun  had  reached  its 
highest  altitude  for  the  day,  at  noon,  we  infer  that  the 
time  of  central  conjunction  during  this  eclipse  was  not 
later  than  from  20  to  15  minutes  before  noon.  It  could 
not  have  been  much  earlier,  because  the  phenomenon  of 
the  resting  of  the  shadow  for  a  time  at  its  apparently 
highest  point  for  the  day  (which  preceded  the  promise 
that  it  should  rise  ten  steps)  has  also  to  be  accounted  for, 
and  this  cessation  of  its  motion  upwards  could  not  have 
taken  place  till  about  25  minutes  before  noon,  when  the 
decreasing  motion  of  the  Sun  in  altitude  (or  its  slackening 
motion  upwards  as  it  approached  mid-day)  would  have 
become  counteracted  by  the  coming  on  of  the  eclipse. 
Now  at  11.35  A-M-  the  sun's  disc  would  have  risen  to  the 


ARE  ECLIPSES  ALLUDED  TO  IN  THE  BIBLE  ?    85 

altitude  of  35°  8' ;  and  the  highest  visible  point  of  light 
would,  owing  to  the  eclipse,  then  have  been  about  35°  4' ; 
and  at  11.40  A.M.,  being  the  time  of  greatest  obscuration, 
the  extreme  cusps  of  light  produced  by  the  intervention 
of  the  Moon  would  still  have  stood  at  about  35°  4',  just 
23'  below  the  highest  point  of  light  at  noon  (Fig.  12). 
The  whole  disc  of  the  sun  had  now  risen  above  the 
gnomon,  yet  no  motion  of  the  shadow  on  the  steps  had 
been  observed  for  fully  five  minutes.  The  time  shown  by 
the  dial  was  seemingly  mid-day. 

We  have  now  to  consider  "  to  what  extent  would  a 
staircase  rising  at  an  angle  of  31°  47'  towards  the  Sun, 
with  a  gnomon  so  placed  at  the  top  as  to  cast  a  shadow 
to  the  foot  of  the  lower  step  on  the  shortest  day  of  the 
year  be  affected  by  a  movement  in  a  perpendicular  direc- 
tion of  the  point  of  light  to  the  extent  of  23',  or  ^  of  a 
degree  "  ?  The  effect  would  be  widely  different  at  differ- 
ent times  of  the  year,  being  greatest  at  mid-winter  when 
the  shadows  are  longest,  and  least  at  mid-summer  when 
the  shadows  are  shortest.  It  follows  from  this  that  Jan- 
uary 1 3  being  a  day  but  three  weeks  removed  from  mid- 
winter day  the  normal  shadow  would  be  not  far  from  its 
longest  possible  length,  and  the  effect  of  a  displacement 
of  23'  would  be  neither  more  nor  less  than  TV  of  the  whole 
range  of  the  steps  whatever  that  range  might  have  been. 
This  extent  of  motion,  then,  is  fully  sufficient  to  satisfy 
the  condition  prescribed  by  the  Biblical  narrative  of  there 
being  such  a  deflection  of  the  Sun's  light  as  would  affect 
the  shadow  to  the  extent  implied  by  the  words  "ten 
steps  "  or  "  ten  degrees,"  which  is  virtually  the  same  idea. 
The  same  extent  of  motion  could  not  have  been  produced 
under  the  same  conditions  either  a  few  days  earlier  or  a 
few  days  later  ;  that  may  certainly  be  taken  for  granted. 
And  the  only  point  in  which  we  are  necessarily  in  doubt 
arises  from  the  fact  that  we  are  ignorant  of  the  actual 


ARE  ECLIPSES  ALLUDED  TO  IN  THE  BIBLE  ?    87 

number  and  nature  of  the  graduations  of  Ahaz's  so-called 
"  Dial."  If  it  were  permissible  to  assume  that  there  were 
1 20  graduations  on  the  instrument,  be  the  steps  properly 
so-called  on  a  structure  erected  in  the  open  air  or  be  they 
lines  on  a  flat  surface  on  some  instrument  standing  in  a 
room,  or  what  not,  then  the  problem  is  solved,  for  ^  (as 
above)  of  120  is  ten — the  "ten  degrees"  stated  in  the 
history. 

As  to  whether  the  "  dial "  of  Ahaz  was  a  device  built 
up  of  masonry  in  the  open  air  or  was  an  instrument  for 
indoor  use  we  know  absolutely  nothing,  and  speculation 
is  useless.  There  is  something  to  be  said  on  both  sides. 
Bosanquet,  on  abstract  grounds,  leans  to  the  latter  view; 
on  the  other  hand  he  calls  attention  to  the  present  exist- 
ence in  India,  at  Delhi  and  Benares,  of  ruined  Hindoo 
observatories  in  the  form  of  huge  masonry  sun-dials  many 
yards  in  length  and  breadth  and  height.* 

Finally  it  may  be  pointed  out  that  there  is  some  in- 
cidental confirmation  to  be  found  for  this  Hezekiah  inci- 
dent having  happened  in  winter.  That  the  season  of  the 
year  was  winter  seems  to  be  suggested  by  the  word  used 
in  the  original  Hebrew  in  connection  with  the  return  of 
the  shadow. 

"  Backward  "  in  Isaiah  xxxviii.  8  might  also  be  trans- 
lated, "  From  the  end."  It  would  be  very  natural  to  hold 
that  this  implied  that  the  motion  of  the  shadow  was  up- 
wards from  the  lower  end  of  the  group  of  steps  towards 
which  the  shadow  had  gone  down.  Now  the  lower  end 
of  the  steps  could  only  have  been  the  place  of  the  shadow 
in  December  or  January  at  or  near  the  time  of  the  winter 
solstice.  Moreover  the  mention  of  the  "  lump  of  figs  " 

*  Paper  by  W.  Hunter  in  Asiatic  Researches,  vol.  v.,  p.  190. 
The  Benares  Observatory  is  described  by  Sir  R.  Barker  in  Phil. 
Trans.,  vol.  Ixvii.,  p.  598.  1777. 


88  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

seems  to  suggest  the  winter  season.  A  cake  of  figs 
means  dried  figs,  not  newly  gathered  summer  figs. 

Putting  all  the  facts  together  we  may  fairly  conclude 
that  the  astronomical  event  which  happened  in  connection 
with  Hezekiah's  illness  was  an  eclipse  of  the  Sun,  and 
that  its  date  was  January  1 1,  689  B.C. 

A  few  other  Scripture  passages  need  a  passing  men- 
tion. In  Isaiah  xiii.  10  we  read  : — 

"  The  Sun  shall  be  darkened  in  his  going  forth,  and 
the  Moon  shall  not  cause  her  light  to  shine."  It  has  been 
thought  by  Johnson  that  this  passage  is  an  allusion  to  an 
eclipse  of  the  Sun,  and  so  it  might  be ;  but  on  the  other 
hand,  it  may  be  no  more  than  one  of  those  highly  figurative 
phrases  which  abound  in  holy  Scripture,  and  of  which  the 
well-known  passage,  "The  stars  in  their  courses  fought 
against  Sisera  "  (Judges  v.  20),  is  a  familiar  example. 

In  Jeremiah  x.  2  we  read  : — 

"  Be  not  dismayed  at  the  signs  of  heaven  ;  for  the 
heathen  are  dismayed  at  them."  This  is  cited  as  an 
eclipse  allusion  by  Johnson,  who  points  out  that  the  utter- 
ance of  this  caution  preceded  by  about  fifteen  years  the 
celebrated  eclipse  of  Thales  (585  B.C.).  But  surely  this  is 
far-fetched.  I  shall  be  inclined  to  attach  the  same  criti- 
cism to  his  next  citation.  Ezekiel  employs  these  expres- 
sions : — "When  I  shall  put  thee  out,  I  will  cover  the 
heaven,  and  make  the  stars  thereof  dark ;  I  will  cover 
the  Sun  with  a  cloud,  and  the  Moon  shall  not  give 
her  light  "  (xxxii.  7).  This  language  resembles,  in  no 
small  degree,  Isaiah's,  already  quoted,  and,  like  that, 
might  apply  to  the  phenomenon  of  a  solar  eclipse,  but 
whether  that  was  actually  the  prophet's  intention  is  another 
matter.  He  may  have  witnessed  the  eclipse  of  585  B.C. 
on  the  banks  of  the  river  Chebar,  and  that  spectacle  may 
have  put  this  imagery  into  his  head.  Further  than  this  it 
seems  hardly  safe  to  go. 


ARE  ECLIPSES  ALLUDED  TO  IN  THE  BIBLE  ?    89 

This  seems  an  appropriate  place  to  mention  a  very 
interesting  matter,  to  which  attention  has  been  called  by 
Oriental  scholars  in  recent  times,  who  have  investigated 
Assyrian  and  Egyptian  monuments,  and  other  monuments 
of  the  same  type.  The  story  would  be  a  long  and  inter- 
esting one  if  presented  in  detail,  and  would  far  exceed  my 
limits  of  space.  I  must,  therefore,  be  content  with  such 
a  summary  as  that  which  has  been  worked  out  by 
Mr.  E.  W.  Maunder.  Briefly  the  facts  are  these.  There 
are  to  be  found  in  many  places  carvings  in  stone,  sym- 
bolic of  the  Sun-god  once  worshipped  in  the  East. 
The  general  design,  with  of  course  variations,  is  a  cir- 
cle with  striated  wings  extending  right  and  left  to  two 
diameters  of  the  wing,  more  or  less,  with  a  lesser  ex- 
tension in  a  downward  direction.  Allowing  for  the 
roughness  of  the  art,  and  for  the  fact  that  the  material 
was  stone,  it  does  not  require  any  very  great  stretch 
of  imagination  to  see  in  these  carvings  the  disc  of  a 
totally  eclipsed  Sun  with,  right  and  left  and  below  it, 
that  form  of  corona  which  we  have  come  to  associate  with 
total  eclipses  occurring  at  periods  of  Sun-spot  minima.* 
This  idea  should  not  seem  far-fetched  if  we  bear  in  mind 
the  fact  that  the  ancient  Orientals  worshipped  the  Sun, 
Moon,  and  Planets  ;  and  one  of  the  natural  outcomes  of 
this  is  submitted  for  our  consideration  by  Maunder  in  the 
words  following  t : — 

"  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  Sun  was  regarded 
partly  as  a  symbol,  partly  as  a  manifestation  of  the  unseen, 
unapproachable  Divinity.  Its  light  and  heat,  its  power  of 
calling  into  active  exercise  the  mysterious  forces  of  ger- 
mination and  ripening,  the  universality  of  its  influence,  all 
seemed  the  fit  expressions  of  the  yet  greater  powers  which 
belonged  to  the  Invisible.  What  happened  in  a  total  solar 

*  See  p.  60  (ante).      t  Knowledge,  vol.  xx.,  p.  9,  January  1897. 


90  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

eclipse  ?  For  a  short  time  that  which  seemed  so  perfect 
a  divine  symbol  was  completely  hidden.  The  light  and 
heat,  the  two  great  forms  of  solar  energy,  were  withdrawn, 
but  something  took  their  place.  A  mysterious  light  of 
mysterious  form,  unlike  any  other  light,  unlike  any  other 
single  form,  was  seen  in  its  place.  Could  they  fail  to  see 
in  this  a  closer,  a  more  intimate  revelation,  a  more  exalted 
symbolism  of  the  Divine  Nature  and  Presence  ?  Just  as 
in  the  various  Greek  'mysteries'  the  student  was  gradually 
advanced  from  one  set  of  symbols  to  another  even  more 
abstruse  and  esoteric,  so  here,  on  the  broad  face  of  heaven 
itself,  vouchsafed  for  a  brief  space  of  time  and  at  long 
intervals  apart,  the  Deity  revealed  Himself  to  the  initiated 
by  a  higher  and  more  difficult  symbol  than  ordinarily. 
The  symbol  would  vary  in  shape.  We  may  take  it  for 
granted  that  the  old  Chaldeans,  as  modern  astronomers 
to-day,  had  at  one  time  or  another  presented  to  them 
every  type  of  Coronal  structure,  But  there  would,  no 
doubt,  be  a  difficulty  in  grasping  or  remembering  the 
irregular  details  of  the  Corona  as  seen  in  most  eclipses. 
It  occasionally  happens,  however,  that  the  Corona  shows 
itself  under  a  form  of  grand  and  striking  simplicity.  It  is 
now  widely  recognised  that  the  typical  Corona  of  the  mini- 
mum of  the  Sun-spot  cycle  consists  chiefly  of  two  great 
equatorial  streamers." 

Maunder  then  goes  on  to  cite  certain  American  pic- 
tures by  Trouvelot  and  others  of  the  eclipse  of  July  29, 
1878,  in  which  the  great  extension  of  the  Corona  to  the 
East  and  the  West  is  specially  shown.  One  drawing  in 
particular,  by  Miss  K.  E.  Wolcott,  exhibits  the  Sun  with 
a  perfect  bright  ring  round  it  from  which  the  Coronal 
streamers  emanate  in  the  directions  mentioned.  Maunder 
then  remarks  that  he  has  a  strong  conviction  that  it  was  a 
Corona  of  this  type  which  was  the  origin  of  the  "  Ring 
with  Wings,"  the  symbol  which  on  Assyrian  monuments 


ARE  ECLIPSES  ALLUDED  TO  IN  THE  BIBLE?    91 

is  always  shown  as  floating  over  the  head  of  the  ring  which 
is  designed  to  indicate  the  presence  and  protection  of  the 
Deity.  In  the  article  cited  he  gives  illustrations  of  two 
forms  under  which  the  "  Ring  with  Wings  "  appears  on 
Assyrian  and  Egyptian  monuments  respectively,  remark- 
ing that  "  Egyptians  too  were  Astronomers  and  Sun-wor- 
shippers and  were  experts  in  the  language  of  symbols. 
Equally  with  the  Chaldeans  the  Egyptian  priests  should 
have  regarded  the  Corona  as  a  symbolical  revelation  of 
the  Deity  whose  usual  manifestation  they  recognised  in 
the  Sun,  and  accordingly  we  find  them  employing  a  sym- 
bol which  is  almost  as  perfect  a  representation  of  the 
Corona  of  minimum  as  that  which  the  Assyrians  adopted." 
Another  curious  point  commented  upon  by  Maunder  is 
that  the  Assyrians  frequently  insert  the  figure  of  their 
Deity  within  the  ring,  and  attach  thereto  a  kilt-like  dress. 
Even  when  they  show  the  ring  without  the  figure  the 
"kilt,"  as  it  may  be  called,  is  still  there,  indicating  that  it 
is  not  simply  a  garment  worn  by  the  figure,  but  an  integral 
part  of  the  symbol.  This  "  kilt  "  is  represented  as  pleated, 
and  the  resemblance  of  the  pleatings  to  the  polar  rays 
shown  in  Trouvelot's  drawing  of  the  Corona,  is  "  practi- 
cally perfect."  On  this  point  Maunder  adds  :— "  If  this  be 
a  mere  chance  coincidence,  it  seems  to  me  a  most  extra- 
ordinary one."  He  concludes  by  saying  that  these  sym- 
bols, so  frequently  met  with,  and  so  clearly  designed  to 
indicate  the  presence  of  the  Deity,  "  are,  in  their  origin, 
drawings  of  the  solar  Corona,  as  seen  at  the  Sun-spot 
minimum,  and  as  such  are  the  earliest  eclipse  representa- 
tions which  have  been  preserved  to  us." 

I  give  these  ideas  for  what  they  are  worth ;  they  are 
very  ingeniously  worked  out,  and  though  the  argument  is 
not  conclusive,  yet  I  do  think  that  there  is  enough  in  it 
to  be  worth  attention. 


92  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 


CHAPTER   X. 

ECLIPSES   OF   THE  SUN    MENTIONED    IN    HISTORY 
— CLASSICAL. 

IN  this  chapter  we  shall,  for  the  most  part,  be  on 
firmer  ground  than  hitherto,  because  several  of  the  most 
eminent  Greek  and  Latin  historians  have  left  on  record 
full  and  circumstantial  accounts  of  eclipses  which  have 
come  under  their  notice,  and  which  have  been  more  or 
less  completely  verified  by  the  computations  and  re- 
searches of  modern  times.  But  these  remarks  do  not, 
however,  quite  apply  to  the  first  eclipse  which  will  be 
mentioned. 

Plutarch,  in  his  Life  of  Romulus,  refers  to  some  re- 
markable incident  connected,  in  point  of  time  at  any  rate, 
with  his  death  :— "  The  air  on  that  occasion  was  suddenly 
convulsed  and  altered  in  a  wonderful  manner,  for  the  light 
of  the  Sun  failed,  and  they  were  involved  in  an  astonish- 
ing darkness,  attended  on  every  side  with  dreadful 
thunderings  and  tempestuous  winds."  This  so-called 
darkness  is  considered  to  have  been  the  same  as  that 
mentioned  by  Cicero.*  There  is  so  much  myth  about 
Romulus  that  it  is  not  safe  to  write  in  confident  language. 
Nevertheless  it  is  a  fact,  according  to  Johnson,  that  there 
was  a  very  large  eclipse  of  the  Sun  visible  at  Rome  in  the 
afternoon  of  May  26,  715  B.C.,  and  715  B.C.  is  supposed 
to  have  been  the  year,  or  about  the  year,  of  the  death  of 
Romulus.  Plutarch  is  also  responsible  for  the  statement 
that  a  great  eclipse  of  the  Sun  took  place  sometime  be- 
fore the  birth  of  Romulus ;  and  if  there  is  anything  in 
this  statement  Johnson  thinks  that  the  annular  eclipse  of 
November  28  771  B.C.,  might  meet  the  circumstances  of 

De  Republicd^  Lib.  vL,  cap.  22. 


CLASSICAL  ECLIPSES  OF  THE   SUN.  93 

the  case,  but  too  much  romance  attaches  to  the  history  of 
Romulus  for  anyone  to  write  with  assurance  respecting 
the  circumstances  of  his  career.  Much  of  it  is  generally 
considered  to  be  fabulous. 

In  one  of  the  extant  fragments  of  the  Greek  poet 
Archilochus  (said  to  be  the  first  who  introduced  iambics 
into  his  verses),  the  following  sentence  occurs  : — "Zeus, 
the  father  of  the  Olympic  Gods,  turned  mid-day  into  night, 
hiding  the  light  of  the  dazzling  Sun ;  an  overwhelming 
dread  fell  upon  men."  The  poet's  language  may  evident- 
ly apply  to  a  total  eclipse  of  the  Sun ;  and  investigations 
by  Oppolzer  and  Millosevich  make  it  probable  that  the 
reference  is  to  the  total  eclipse  of  the  Sun  which  hap- 
pened on  April  6,  648  B.C.  This  was  total  at  about  10 
A.M.  at  Thasos  and  in  the  northern  part  of  the  /Egean 
Sea.  The  acceptance  of  this  date  displaces  by  about  half 
a  century  the  date  commonly  assigned  for  the  poet's  career, 
but  this  is  not  thought  to  be  of  much  account  having  re- 
gard to  the  hazy  character  of  Grecian  chronology  before 
the  Persian  wars.* 

On  May  28,  585  B.C.  there  occurred  an  eclipse  the  sur- 
rounding circumstances  of  which  present  several  features 
of  particular  interest.  One  of  the  most  celebrated  of  the 
astronomers  of  antiquity  was  Thales  of  Miletus,  and  his 
astronomical  labours  were  said  to  have  included  a  pre- 
diction of  this  eclipse,  which  moreover  has  the  further 
interest  to  us  that  it  has  assisted  chronologists  and  histo- 
rians is  fixing  the  precise  date  of  an  important  event  in 
ancient  history.  Herodotus,t  describing  a  war  which  had 
been  going  on  for  some  years  between  the  Lydians  and 

*E.  Millosevich,  MemoriedellaSocieta  Spettroscopisti  Italiani^ 
vol.  xxii.  p.  70.  '  1893. 

t  Herodotus,  Book  i.,  chap.  74.  This  eclipse  is  also  mentioned 
by  Pliny  (Nat.  Hist.,  Book  ii.,  chap.  9)  and  by  Cicero  (De  Divina- 
tione,  cap.  49). 


94  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

the  Medes,  gives  the  following  account  of  the  circum- 
stances which  led  to  its  premature  termination  :—"  As 
the  balance  had  not  inclined  in  favour  of  either  nation, 
another  engagement  took  place  in  the  sixth  year  of  the 
war,  in  the  course  of  which,  just  as  the  battle  was  grow- 
ing warm,  day  was  suddenly  turned  into  night.  This 
event  had  been  foretold  to  the  lonians  by  Thales  of  Mile- 
tus, who  predicted  for  it  the  very  year  in  which  it  actually 
took  place.  When  the  Lydians  and  Medes  observed  the 
change  they  ceased  fighting,  and  were  alike  anxious  to  con- 
clude peace."  Peace  was  accordingly  agreed  upon  and  ce- 
mented by  a  twofold  marriage.  "  For  (says  the  historian) 
without  some  strong  bond,  there  is  little  security  to  be 
found  in  men's  covenants."  The  exact  date  of  this  eclipse 
was  long  a  matter  of  discussion,  and  eclipses  which  oc- 
curred in  610  B.C.  and  593  B.C.  were  each  thought  at  one 
time  or  another  to  have  been  the  one  referred  to.  The 
question  was  finally  settled  by  the  late  Sir  G.  B.  Airy,  after 
an  exhaustive  inquiry,  in  favour  of  the  eclipse  of  585  B.C. 
This  date  has  the  further  advantage  of  harmonising  cer- 
tain statements  made  by  Cicero  and  Pliny  as  to  its  having 
happened  in  the  4th  year  of  the  48th  Olympiad. 

Another  word  or  two  may  be  interesting  as  regards 
the  share  which  Thales  is  supposed  to  have  had  in  pre- 
dicting this  eclipse,  the  more  so,  that  very  high  authorities 
in  the  domains  of  astronomy,  and  chronology,  and  antiq- 
uities take  opposite  sides  in  the  matter.  Sir  G.  C.  Lewis, 
Bart.,  M.P.,  may  be  cited  first  as  one  of  the  unbelievers. 
He  says*  that  Thales  is  "  reported  to  have  predicted  it  to 
the  lonians.  If  he  had  predicted  it  to  the  Lydians,  in 
whose  country  the  eclipse  was  to  be  total,  his  conduct 
would  be  intelligible,  but  it  seems  strange  that  he  should 
have  predicted  it  to  the  lonians,  who  had  no  direct  in- 

*  Astronomy  of  the  Ancients,  p.  88. 


CLASSICAL  ECLIPSES  OF  THE  SUN.  95 

terest  in  the  event."  Bosanquet  replies  to  this  by  pointing 
out  that  Miletus,  in  Ionia,  was  the  birthplace  of  Thales, 
and  also  that  a  shadow,  covering  two  degrees  of  latitude, 
passing  through  Ionia,  would  also  necessarily  cover  Lydia. 

Another  dissentient  is  Sir  H.  C.  Rawlinson,*  who, 
remembering  that  Thales  is  said  to  have  predicted  a  good 
olive  crop,  and  Anaxagoras  the  fall  of  an  aerolite,  says : — 
"  The  prediction  of  this  eclipse  by  Thales  may  fairly  be 
classed  with  the  prediction  of  a  good  olive  crop,  or  the 
fall  of  an  aerolite.  Thales,  indeed,  could  only  have  obtained 
the  requisite  knowledge  for  predicting  eclipses  from  the 
Chaldeans ;  and  that  the  science  of  these  astronomers, 
although  sufficient  for  the  investigation  of  lunar  eclipses, 
did  not  enable  them  to  calculate  solar  eclipses — dependent 
as  such  a  calculation  is,  not  only  on  the  determination  of 
the  period  of  recurrence,  but  on  the  true  projection  also  of 
the  track  of  the  Sun's  shadow  along  a  particular  line  over 
the  surface  of  the  earth — may  be  inferred  from  our  finding 
that  in  the  astronomical  canon  of  Ptolemy,  which  was 
compiled  from  the  Chaldean  registers,  the  observations  of 
the  Moon's  eclipse  are  alone  entered." 

Airy  f  replied  to  these  observations  as  follows  : — "  I 
think  it  not  at  all  improbable  that  the  eclipse  was  so  pre- 
dicted, and  there  is  one  easy  way,  and  only  one  of  predict- 
ing it — namely,  by  the  Saros,  or  period  of  18  years,  10 
days,  8  hours  nearly.  By  use  of  this  period  an  evening 
eclipse  may  be  predicted  from  a  morning  eclipse,  but  a 
morning  eclipse  can  rarely  be  predicted  from  an  evening 
eclipse  (as  the  interval  of  eight  hours  after  an  evening 
eclipse  will  generally  throw  the  eclipse  at  the  end  of  the 
Saros  into  the  hours  of  night).  The  evening  eclipse, 
therefore,  of  B.C.  585,  May  28,  which  I  adopt  as  being 

*  Herodotus,  edited  by  Rev.  G.  Rawlinson,  vol.  i.  p.  212. 
\  Month.  Not.,  R.A.S.,  vol.  xviii.  p.  148  ;  March  1858. 


96  THE   STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

most  certainly  the  eclipse  of  Thales,  might  be  predicted 
from  the  morning  eclipse  of  B.C.  603,  May  17.  ...  No 
other  of  the  eclipses  discussed  by  Baily  and  Oltmanns 
present  the  same  facility  for  prediction." 

Xenophon*  mentions  an  eclipse  as  having  led  to  the 
capture  by  the  Persians  of  the  Median  city  Larissa.  In 
the  retreat  of  the  Greeks  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  Tigris, 
they  crossed  the  river  Zapetes  and  also  a  ravine,  and  then 
reached  the  Tigris.  According  to  Xenophon,  they  found 
at  this  place  a  large  deserted  city  formerly  inhabited  by 
the  Medes.  Its  wall  was  25  feet  thick  and  100  feet  high  ; 
its  circumference  2  parasangs  [=7i  miles].  It  was  built 
of  burnt  brick  on  an  under  structure  of  stone  20  feet  in 
height.  Xenophon  then  proceeds  to  say  that  "  when  the 
Persians  obtained  the  Empire  from  the  Medes,  the  King 
of  the  Persians  besieged  the  city,  but  was  unable  by  any 
means  to  take  it  till  a  cloud  having  covered  the  Sun  and 
caused  it  to  disappear  completely,  the  inhabitants  with- 
drew in  alarm,  and  thus  the  city  was  captured.  Close  to 
this  city  was  a  pyramid  of  stone,  one  plethrum  in  breadth, 
two  plethra  in  height.  .  .  .  Thence  the  Greeks  proceeded 
six  parasangs  to  a  great  deserted  castle  by  a  city  called 
Mespila  formerly  inhabited  by  the  Medes ;  the  substruc- 
ture of  its  wall  was  of  squared  stone  abounding  in  shells  .  .  . 
the  King  of  the  Persians  besieged  it,  but  could  not  take 
it ;  Zeus  terrified  the  inhabitants  with  thunderbolts,  and 
so  the  city  was  taken." 

The  minute  description  here  given  by  Xenophon  en- 
abled Sir  A.  H.  Layard,  Captain  Felix  Jones,  and  others, 
to  identify  Larissa  with  the  modern  Nimrud  and  Mespila 
with  Mosul.  A  suspicion  is  thrown  out  in  some  editions 
of  the  Anabasis  that  the  language  cited  might  refer  to  an 
eclipse  of  the  Sun.  It  is  to  be  noted,  however,  that  it  is 

*  Anabasis,  Lib.  iii.,  cap.  4,  sec.  7. 


CLASSICAL  ECLIPSES  OF  THE  SUN.  97 

not  included  by  Ricciolus  in  the  list  of  eclipses  mentioned 
in  ancient  writers  which  he  gives  in  his  Almagestum 
Nffuum.  Sir  G.  B.  Airy,  having  had  his  attention  called 
to  the  matter,  examined  roughly  all  the  eclipses  which 
occurred  during  a  period  of  40  years,  covering  the  sup- 
posed date  implied  by  Xenophon.  Having  selected  two, 
he  computed  them  accurately  but  found  them  inapplica- 
ble. He  then  tried  another  (May  19,  557  B.C.)  which  he 
had  previously  passed  over  because  he  doubted  its  totality, 
and  he  had  the  great  satisfaction  of  finding  that  the 
eclipse,  though  giving  a  small  shadow,  had  been  total, 
and  that  it  had  passed  so  near  to  Nimrud  that  there  could 
be  no  doubt  of  its  being  the  eclipse  sought. 

Sir  G.  B.  Airy  was  such  a  very  careful  worker  and 
investigator  of  eclipses  that  his  conclusions  in  this  matter 
have  met  with  general  acceptance.  It  must,  however,  in 
fairness  be  stated  that  a  very  competent  American  astron- 
omer, Professor  Newcomb,  has  expressed  doubts  as  to 
whether  after  all  Xenophon's  allusion  is  to  an  eclipse,  but, 
judging  by  his  closing  words,  the  learned  American  does 
not  seem  quite  satisfied  with  his  own  scepticism,  for  he 
says — "  Nothwithstanding  my  want  of  confidence,  I  con- 
ceive the  possibility  of  a  real  eclipse  to  be  greater  than  in 
the  eclipse  of  Thales,  while  we  have  the  great  advantages 
that  the  point  of  occurrence  is  well  defined,  the  shadow 
narrow,  and,  if  it  was  an  eclipse  at  all.  the  circumstance  of 
totality  placed  beyond  serious  doubt."* 

In  the  same  year  as  that  in  which,  according  to  the 
common  account,  the  battle  of  Salamis  was  fought  (480 
B.C.),  there  occurred  a  phenomenon  which  is  thus  adverted 
to  by  Herodotus  t — "  At  the  first  approach  of  Spring  the 

*  Washington  Observations,  1875,  Appendix  II.,  p.  31. 
t  Book  vii.,  chap.   37.      See  Rawlinson's  Herodotus,  vol.  iv. 
p.  39- 

7 


98  THE   STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

army  quitted  Sardis  and  marched  towards  Abydos ;  at  the 
moment  of  its  departure  the  Sun  suddenly  quitted  its  place 
in  the  heavens  and  disappeared,  though  there  were  no 
clouds  in  sight  and  the  day  was  quite  clear ;  day  was  thus 
turned  into  night."  We  are  told  *  that  "  As  the  king  was 
going  against  Greece,  and  had  come  into  the  region  of  the 
Hellespont,  there  happened  an  eclipse  of  the  Sun  in  the 
East ;  this  sign  portended  to  him  his  defeat,  for  the  Sun 
was  eclipsed  in  the  region  of  its  rising,  and  Xerxes  was 
also  marching  from  that  quarter."  So  far  as  words  go 
these  accounts  admirably  befit  a  total  eclipse  of  the  Sun, 
but  regarded  as  such  it  has  given  great  trouble  to  chronol- 
ogers,  and  the  identification  of  the  eclipse  is  still  uncertain. 
Hind's  theory  is  that  the  allusion  is  to  an  eclipse  and  in 
particular  to  the  eclipse  of  February  17,478  B.C.  Though 
not  total  at  Sardis  yet  the  eclipse  was  very  large,  f9/75ths  of 
the  Sun  being  covered.  If  we  accept  this,  it  follows  that 
the  usually  recognised  date  for  the  battle  of  Salamis  must 
be  altered  by  two  years.  Airy  thought  it  "  extremely  prob- 
able "  that  the  narrative  related  to  the  total  eclipse  of  the 
Moon,  which  happened  on  March  13,  479  B.C.,  but  this  is 
difficult  to  accept,  especially  as  Plutarch,  in  his  Life  of 
Peloptdas,  says — "  An  army  was  soon  got  ready,  but  as 
the  general  was  on  the  point  of  marching,  the  Sun  began 
to  be  eclipsed,  and  the  city  was  covered  with  darkness  in 
the  daytime."  This  seems  explicit  enough,  assuming  the 
record  to  be  true  and  that  the  same  incident  is  referred  to 
by  Plutarch  as  by  Herodotus  and  Aristides. 

Since  the  time  when  Airy  and  Hind  examined  this  ques- 
tion, all  the  known  facts  have  been  again  reviewed  by  Mr. 
W.  T.  Lynn,  who  pronounces,  but  with  some  hesitation,  in 
favour  of  the  eclipse  of  Oct.  2,  480  B.C.,  as  the  one  asso- 
ciated with  the  battle  of  Salamis.  He  does  this  by  refus- 

*  Scholia,  in  Aristidis  Orationes,  Ed.  Frommel,  p.  222. 


CLASSICAL   ECLIPSES  OF  THE  SUN.  99 

ing  to  see  in  the  above  quotations  from  Herodotus  any 
allusion  to  a  solar  eclipse  at  all,  but  invites  us  to  consider 
a  later  statement  in  Herodotus  *  as  relating  to  an  eclipse, 
though  the  historian  only  calls  it  a  prodigy. 

After  the  battle  of  Thermopylae  the  Peloponnesian 
Greeks  commenced  to  fortify  the  isthmus  of  Corinth  with 
the  view  of  defending  it  with  their  small  army  against  the 
invading  host  of  Xerxes.  The  Spartan  troops  were  under 
the  command  of  Cleombrotus,  the  brother  of  Leonidas, 
the  hero  of  Thermopylae.  He  had  been  consulting  the 
oracles  at  Sparta,  and  Herodotus  states  that  "while  he 
was  offering  sacrifice  to  know  if  he  should  march  out 
against  the  Persian,  the  Sun  was  suddenly  darkened  in 
mid-sky."  This  occurrence  so  frightened  Cleombrotus 
that  he  drew  off  his  forces  and  returned  home.  It  is  un- 
certain from  the  narrative  of  Herodotus  whether  Cleom- 
brotus returned  to  Sparta  in  the  autumn  of  the  year  of  the 
battle  of  Salamis,  or  in  the  spring  of  the  next  following 
year,  which  was  that  in  which  the  battle  of  Platasa  was 
fought.  Bishop  Thirlwall  t  thinks  that  it  was  the  latter, 
but  Lynn  pronounces  for  the  former,  adding  that  the  date 
may  well  have  been  in  October,  and  the  solar  eclipse  of 
October  2,  480  B.C.  may  have  been  the  phenomenon  which 
attracted  notice,  particularly  as  the  Sun  would  have  been 
high  in  the  heavens,  the  greatest  phase  (-,%ths)  occurring, 
according  to  Hind,  at  50  minutes  past  noon.  Here  I 
must  leave  the  matter,  merely  remarking  that  this  alterna- 
tive explanation  obviates  the  necessity  for  disturbing  the 
commonly  received  date  of  the  battle  of  Salamis. 

Thucydides  states  that  during  the  Peloponnesian  war 
"things  formerly  repeated  on  hearsay,  but  very  rarely 

*  Book  ix.,  chap.  10.  See  Rawlinson's  Herodotus,  3rd  ed.  vol. 
iv.  p.  379. 

t  History  of  Greece ,  vol.  ii.  p.  330. 


100  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

confirmed  by  facts,  became  not  incredible,  both  about 
earthquakes  and  eclipses  of  the  Sun  which  came  to  pass 
more  frequently  than  had  been  remembered  in  former 
times."  One  such  eclipse  he  assigns  to  the  first  year  of 
the  war,  and  says*  that  "in  the  same  summer,  at  the  be- 
ginning of  a  new  lunar  month  (at  which  time  alone  the 
phenomenon  seems  possible)  the  Sun  was  eclipsed  after 
mid-day,  and  became  full  again  after  it  had  assumed  a 
crescent  form  and  after  some  of  the  stars  had  shone  out." 
AuS-  3.  43 !  B-c-  is  generally  recognised  as  the  date  of 
this  event.  The  eclipse  was  not  total,  only  three-fourths 
of  the  Sun's  disc  being  obscured.  Venus  was  20"  and 
Jupiter  43°  distant  from  the  Sun,  so  probably  these 
were  the  "stars"  that  were  seen.  This  eclipse  nearly 
prevented  the  Athenian  expedition  against  the  Lacedae- 
monians. The  sailors  were  frightened  by  it,  but  a  happy 
thought  occurred  to  Pericles,  the  commander  of  the  Athe- 
nian forces.  Plutarch,  in  his  Life  of  Pericles,  says : — 
"  The  whole  fleet  was  in  readiness,  and  Pericles  on  board 
his  own  galley,  when  there  happened  an  Eclipse  of  the  Sun. 
The  sudden  darkness  was  looked  upon  as  an  unfavourable 
omen,  and  threw  the  sailors  into  the  greatest  consterna- 
tion. Pericles  observing  that  the  pilot  was  much  aston- 
ished and  perplexed,  took  his  cloak,  and  having  covered 
his  eyes  with  it,  asked  him  if  he  found  anything  terrible 
in  that,  or  considered  it  as  a  bad  presage  ?  Upon  his 
answering  in  the  negative,  he  asked,  '  Where  is  the  differ- 
ence, then,  between  this  and  the  other,  except  that  some- 
thing bigger  than  my  cloak  causes  the  eclipse  ?  '  " 

Another  eclipse  is  mentioned  by  Thucydides  \  in  con- 
nection with  an  expedition  of  the  Athenians  against 
Cythera.  He  says : — "  At  the  very  commencement  of  the 
following  summer  there  was  an  eclipse  of  the  Sun  at  the 

*  Book  ii.,  chap.  28.  t  Book  iv.,  chap.  52. 


CLASSICAL  ECLIPSES  OF  THE  SUN.          101 

time  of  a  new  moon,  and  in  the  early  part  of  the  same 
month  an  earthquake."  This  has  been  identified  with  the 
annular  eclipse  of  March  21,  424  B.C.,  the  central  line  of 
which  passed  across  Northern  Europe.  It  is  not  quite 
clear  whether  the  historian  wishes  to  insinuate  that  the 
eclipse  caused  the  earthquake  or  the  earthquake  the  eclipse. 
An  eclipse  known  as  that  of  Ennius  is  another  of  the 
eclipses  antecedent  to  the  Christian  Era  which  has  been 
the  subject  of  full  modern  investigation,  and  the  cir- 
cumstances of  which  are  such  that,  in  the  language  of 
Professor  Hansen,  "  it  may  be  reckoned  as  one  of  the  most 
certain  and  well-established  eclipses  of  antiquity."  The 
record  of  it  has  only  been  brought  to  light  in  modern 
times  by  the  discovery  of  Cicero's  Treatise,  DeRepublicd. 
According  to  Cicero,*  Ennius  the  great  Roman  poet,  who 
lived  in  the  second  century  B.C.,  and  who  died  of  gout 
contracted,  it  is  said,  by  frequent  intoxication,  recorded  an 
interesting  event  in  the  following  words  : — J\  onis  Junti 
soli  mna  obstetit  et  nox ,  "  On  the  Nones  of  June  the  Moon 
was  in  opposition  to  the  Sun  and  night."  This  singular 
phrase  has  long  been  assumed  to  allude  to  an  eclipse  of 
the  Sun,  but  the  precise  interpretation  of  the  words  was 
not  for  a  long  time  realized.  In  Cicero's  time  the  Nones 
of  June  fell  on  the  5th,  but  in  the  time  of  Ennius,  who 
lived  a  century  and  a  half  before  Cicero,  the  Nones  of 
June  fell  between  June  5  and  July  4  on  account  of  the 
lunar  years  and  the  intercalary  month  of  the  Roman  Cal- 
endar. The  date  of  this  eclipse  is  distinctly  known  to  be 
June  21,  400  B.C.,  but  the  hour  was  long  in  dispute. 
Professor  Zech  found  that  the  Sun  set  at  Rome  eclipsed, 
and  that  the  maximum  phase  took  place  after  sun-set. 
Hansen,  however,  with  his  better  Tables,  found  that  the 
eclipse  was  total  at  Rome,  and  that  the  totality  ended  at 

*  De  Republicd,  Lib.  i.  c.  16. 


102  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

7.33  p.m.,  the  Sun  setting  almost  immediately  afterwards 
at  7.36.  This  fact,  Hansen  considers,  explains  the  other- 
wise unintelligible  passage  of  Ennius  quoted  above :  in- 
stead of  saying  et  nox,  he  should  have  said  et  simul  nox, 
"and  immediately  it  was  night."  Newcomb  questions 
the  totality  of  this  eclipse,  but  assigns  no  clear  reasons 
for  his  doubts.* 

On  August  14,  394  B.C.,  there  was  a  large  eclipse  of 
the  Sun  visible  in  the  Mediterranean.  It  occurred  in  the 
forenoon,  and  is  mentioned  by  Xenophon  t  in  connection 
with  a  naval  engagement  in  which  the  Persians  were  de- 
feated by  Conon. 

Plutarch,  in  his  Life  of  Pelopidas,  relates  how  one 
Alexander  of  Pheras  had  devastated  several  cities  of  Thes- 
saly,  and  that  as  soon  as  the  oppressed  inhabitants  had 
learned  that  Pelopidas  had  come  back  from  an  embassy 
on  which  he  had  been  to  the  King  of  Persia,  they  sent 
deputies  to  him  to  Thebes  to  beg  the  favour  of  armed  as- 
sistance, with  Pelopidas  as  general.  "  The  Thebans  will- 
ingly granted  their  request,  and  an  army  was  soon  got 
ready,  but  as  the  general  was  on  the  point  of  marching, 
the  Sun  began  to  be  eclipsed,  and  the  city  was  covered 
with  darkness  in  the  day-time."  This  eclipse  is  generally 
identified  with  that  of  July  13,  364  B.C.  If  this  is  correct, 
Plutarch's  language  must  be  incorrect,  or  at  least  greatly 
exaggerated,  for  no  more  than  about  three-fourths  of  the 
Sun  was  obscured. 

On  February  29,  357  B.C.  there  happened  an  eclipse, 
also  visible  in  or  near  the  Mediterranean.  This  is  sup- 
posed to  have  been  the  eclipse  for  the  prediction  of  which 
Helicon,  a  friend  of  Plato,  received  from  Dionysius,  King 
of  Syracuse,  payment  in  the  shape  of  a  talent. 

*  Washington  Observations,  1875,  Appendix  II.,  p.  33. 
t  Hellenics,  Book  iv.,  chap.  3,  sec.  10. 


CLASSICAL  ECLIPSES   OF  THE  SUN.  103 

We  have  now  to  consider  another  ancient  eclipse 
which  has  a  history  of  peculiar  interest  as  regards  the 
investigations  to  which  it  has  been  subjected.  It  is  com- 
monly known  as  the  "Eclipse  of  Agathocles,"  and  is 
recorded  by  two  historians  of  antiquity  in  the  words  fol- 
lowing. Diodorus  Siculus  *  says  : — 

"  Agathocles  also,  though  closely  pursued  by  the  ene- 
my, by  the  advantage  of  the  night  cojning  on  (beyond  all 
hope)  got  safe  off  from  them.  The  next  day  there  was 
such  an  eclipse  of  the  Sun,  that  the  stars  appeared  every- 
where in  the  firmament,  and  the  day  was  turned  into  night, 
upon  which  Agathocles 's  soldiers  (conceiving  that  God 
thereby  did  foretell  their  destruction)  fell  into  great  per- 
plexities and  discontents  concerning  what  was  like  to  be- 
fall them." 

Justin  says  t : — 

"  By  the  harangue  the  hearts  of  the  soldiers  were  some- 
what elevated,  but  an  eclipse  of  the  Sun  that  had  hap- 
pened during  their  voyage  still  possessed  them  with  super- 
stitious fears  of  a  bad  omen.  The  king  was  at  no  less 
pain  to  satisfy  them  about  this  affair  than  about  the  war, 
and  therefore  he  told  them  that  he  should  have  thought 
this  sign  an  ill  presage  for  them,  if  it  had  happened  be- 
fore they  set  out,  but  having  happened  afterwards  he  could 
not  but  think  it  presaged  ill  to  those  against  whom  they 
marched.  Besides,  eclipses  of  the  luminaries  always  sig- 
nify a  change  of  affairs,  and  therefore  some  change  was 
certainly  signified,  either  to  Carthage,  which  was  in  such 
a  flourishing  condition,  or  to  them,  whose  affairs  were 
in  a  very  ruinous  state." 

The  substance  of  these  statements  is  that  in  the  year 
310  B.C.  Agathocles,  Tyrant  of  Syracuse,  while  conduct- 

*  Bibliothecce  Historicce,  Lib.  xx.,  cap.  i,  sec.  5. 
t  Historia,  Lib.  xxii.,  cap.  6. 


104  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

ing  his  fleet  from  Syracuse  to  the  Coast  of  Africa,  found 
himself  enveloped  in  the  shadow  of  an  eclipse,  which  evi- 
dently, from  the  accounts,  was  total.  His  fleet  had  been 
chased  by  the  Carthaginians  on  leaving  Syracuse  the  pre- 
ceding day,  but  got  away  under  the  cover  of  night.  On 
the  following  morning  about  8  or  9  a.m.  a  sudden  dark- 
ness came  on  which  greatly  alarmed  the  sailors.  So  con- 
siderable was  the  darkness,  that  numerous  stars  appeared. 
It  is  not  at  the  first  easy  to  localize  the  position  of  the 
fleet,  except  that  we  may  infer  that  it  could  hardly  have 
got  more  than  80  or  at  the  most  100  miles  away  from 
the  harbour  of  Syracuse,  where  it  had  been  closely  block- 
aded by  a  Carthaginian  fleet.  'Agathocles  would  not  have 
got  away  at  all  but  for  the  fact  that  a  relieving  fleet  was 
expected,  and  the  Carthaginians  were  obliged  to  relax 
their  blockade  in  order  to  go  in  search  of  the  relieving 
fleet.  Thus  it  came  about  not  only  that  Agathocles  set 
himself  free,  but  was  able  to  retaliate  on  his  enemies  by 
landing  on  the  coast  of  Africa  at  a  point  near  the  modern 
Cape  Bon,  and  devastating  the  Carthaginian  territories. 
The  voyage  thither  occupied  six  days,  and  the  eclipse  oc- 
curred on  the  second  day.  Though  we  are  not  informed 
of  the  route  followed  by  Agathocles,  that  is  to  say,  whether 
he  passed  round  the  North  or  the  South  side  of  the  island 
of  Sicily,  yet  it  has  been  made  clear  by  astronomers  that 
the  southern  side  was  that  taken. 

Baily,  who  was  the  first  modern  astronomer  to  inves- 
tigate the  circumstances  of  this  eclipse,  found  that  there 
was  an  irreconcilable  difference  between  the  path  of  the 
shadow  found  by  himself  and  the  historical  statement,  a 
gap  of  about  180  geographical  miles  seeming  to  intervene 
between  the  most  southerly  position  which  could  be  as- 
signed to  the  fleet  of  Agathocles,  and  the  most  northerly 
possible  limit  of  the  path  of  the  eclipse  shadow.  This 
was  the  condition  of  the  problem  when  Sir  G.  B.  Airy 


CLASSICAL  ECLIPSES  OF  THE  SUN.  105 

took  it  up  in  1853.*  He,  however,  was  able  to  throw  an 
entirely  new  light  upon  the  matter.  The  tables  used  by 
Baily  were  distinctly  inferior  to  those  now  in  use,  and  Sir 
G.  B.  Airy  thought  himself  justified  in  saying  that  to  obviate 
the  discordance  of  180  miles  just  referred  to  "it  is  only 
necessary  to  suppose  an  error  of  3  minutes  in  the  com- 
puted distances  of  the  Sun  and  Moon  at  conjunction — 
a  very  inconsiderable  correction  for  a  date  anterior  to  the 
epoch  of  the  tables  by  more  than  twenty-one  centuries." 

It  deserves  to  be  mentioned,  though  the  point  cannot 
here  be  dwelt  upon  at  much  length,  that  these  ancient 
eclipses  all  hang  together  in  such  a  way  that  it  is  not 
sufficient  for  the  man  of  Astronomy  and  the  man  of 
Chronology  to  agree  on  one  eclipse,  unless  they  can  har- 
monise the  facts  of  several. 

For  instance,  the  eclipse  of  Thales,  the  date  of  which 
was  long  and  much  disputed,  has  a  material  bearing  on 
the  eclipse  of  Agathocles,  the  date  of  which  admits  of  no 
dispute ;  and  one  of  the  problems  which  had  to  be  solved 
half  a  century  ago  was  how  best  to  use  the  eclipse  of 
Agathocles  to  determine  the  date  of  that  of  Thales.  If 
610  B.C.  were  accepted  for  the  Thales  eclipse,  so  as  to 
throw  the  zone  of  total  darkness  anywhere  over  Asia 
Minor  ( where  for  the  sake  of  history  it  was  essential  to 
put  it)  the  consequence  would  be  that  the  shadow  of  the 
eclipse  of  310  B.C.  would  have  been  thrown  so  far  on  to 
land,  in  Africa,  as  to  make  it  out  of  the  question  for 
Agathocles  and  his  fleet  to  have  been  in  it ;  yet  we  know 
for  a  certainty  that  he  was  in  it  in  that  year,  and  no  other 
year.  Conversely,  if  603  B.C.  were  accepted  for  the 
Thales  eclipse,  then  to  raise  northwards  the  position  of 
the  shadow  in  that  year  from  the  line  of  the  Red  Sea  and 
the  Persian  Gulf,  that  it  might  pass  through  Asia  Minor, 

*Phil.  Trans.,  vol.  cxliii.  pp.  187-91,  1853. 


I06  THE   STORY  OF   ECLIPSES. 

would  so  raise  the  position  of  the  shadow  in  310  B.C.  as 
to  throw  it  far  too  much  to  the  N.  of  Sicily  for  Agathocles, 
who  we  know  must  have  gone  southwards  to  Africa,  to 
have  entered  it.  But  if  we  assume  585  B.C.  as  the  date  of 
the  eclipse  of  Thales,  we  obtain  a  perfect  reconciliation  of 
everything  that  needs  to  reconciled ;  the  shadow  of 
the  eclipse  of  585  B.C.  will  be  found  to  have  passed  where 
ancient  history  tells  us  it  did  pass — namely,  through  Ionia, 
and  therefore  through  the  centre  of  Asia  Minor,  and  on 
the  direct  route  from  Lydia  to  Media ;  while  we  also  find 
that  the  shadow  of  the  310  B.C.  eclipse,  that  is,  the  one  in 
the  time  of  Agathocles,  passed  within  100  miles  of" 
Syracuse,  a  fact  which  is  stated  almost  in  those  very 
words  by  the  two  historians  who  have  recorded  the  do- 
ings of  Agathocles  and  his  fleet  in  those  years. 

This  is  where  the  matter  was  left  by  Airy  in  1853. 
Four  years  later  the  new  solar  and  lunar  tables  of  the 
German  astronomer  Hansen  were  published,  and  having 
been  applied  to  the  eclipse  of  585  B.C.  the  conclusions 
just  stated  were  amply  confirmed.  As  if  to  make  as- 
surance doubly  sure,  Airy  went  over  his  ground  again, 
testing  his  former  conclusions  with  regard  to  the  eclipse 
of  Thales  by  the  eclipse  of  Larissa  in  557  B.C.,  already 
referred  to,  and  bringing  in  the  eclipse  of  Stiklastad  in  1030 
A.D.,  to  be  referred  to  presently.  And  as  the  final  result, 
it  may  be  stated  that  all  the  foregoing  dates  are  now 
known  to  an  absolute  certainty,  especially  confirmed  as 
they  were  in  all  essential  points  by  a  computer  of  the  emi- 
nence of  the  late  Mr.  J.  R.  Hind, 

On  a  date  which  corresponds  to  February  1 1,  218  or  217 
B.C.,  an  eclipse  of  the  Sun,  which  was  partial  in  Italy,  is 
mentioned  by  Livy.*  Newcoinb  found  that  the  central  line 
passed  along  way  from  Italy,  to  wit,  "  far  down  in  Africa," 

*  Hist.  J?om.,  Lib.  xxii.,  cap.  i. 


CLASSICAL   ECLIPSES   OF  THE   SUN.  107 

An  eclipse  of  the  Sun  is  mentioned  by  Dion  Cassius  * 
as  having  happened  when  Caesar  crossed  the  Rubicon, 
a  celebrated  event  made  use  of  by  speakers,  political  and 
otherwise,  on  endless  occasions  in  modern  history.  There 
seems  no  doubt  that  the  passage  of  the  Rubicon  took 
place  in  51  B.C.,  and  that  the  eclipse  must  have  been  that 
of  March  7,  51  B.C.  The  circumstances  of  this  eclipse 
have  been  investigated  by  Hind,  who  found  that  the 
eclipse  was  an  annular  one,  the  annular  phase  lasting  6^ 
minutes  in  Northern  Italy. 

Arago  associates  the  death  of  Julius  Caesar  in  44  B.C. 
with  an  annular  eclipse  of  the  Sun,  but  seemingly  without 
sufficient  warrant.  The  actual  record  is  to  the  effect  that 
about  the  time  of  the  great  warrior's  death  there  was  an 
extraordinary  dimness  of  the  Sun.  Whatever  it  was  that 
was  noticed,  clearly  it  could  not  have  been  an  annular 
eclipse,  because  no  such  eclipse  then  happened.  Johnson 
suggests  that  Arago  confused  the  record  of  some  meteoro- 
logical interference  with  the  Sun's  light  with  the  annular 
eclipse  that  happened  seven  years  previously  when  Cassar 
passed  the  Rubicon,  to  which  eclipse  allusion  has  already 
been  made.  That  there  was  for  a  long  while  a  great  de- 
ficiency of  sunshine  in  Italy  about  the  time  of  Caesar's 
death  seems  clear  from  remarks  made  by  Pliny,  Plutarch, 
and  Tibullus,  and  the  words  of  Suetonius  seem  to  imply 
something  of  a  meteorological  character.  I  should  not 
have  mentioned  this  matter  at  all,  but  for  Arago 's  high  re- 
pute as  an  astronomer.  According  to  Seneca  f  during 
an  eclipse  a  comet  was  also  seen. 

It  is  an  interesting  question  to  inquire  whether  any 
allusions  to  eclipses  are  to  be  found  in  Homer,  and  no 
very  certain  answer  can  be  given.  In  the  Iliad  (book 


*  Hist.  Rome,  Book  xli.,  chap.  14. 
t  Naturalium  Questionum,  Lib.  vii. 


lo8  THE  STORY  OF   ECLIPSES. 

xvii.,  lines  366-68)  the  following  passage  will  be  found  :  - 
"  Nor  would  you  say  that  the  Sun  was  safe,  or  the  Moon, 
for  they  were  wrapt  in  dark  haze  in  the  course  of  the  com- 
bat." 

In  the  Odyssey  (book  xx.,  lines  356-57)  we  find:— 
"  And  the  Sun  has  utterly  perished  from  heaven  and  an 
evil  gloom  is  overspread."  This  was  considered  by  old 
commentators  to  be  an  allusion  to  an  eclipse,  and  in  the 
opinion  of  W.  W.  Merry*  "this  is  not  impossible,  as  they 
were  celebrating  the  Festival  of  the  New  Moon." 

Certainly  this  language  has  somewhat  the  savour  of  a 
total  eclipse  of  the  Sun,  but  it  is  difficult  to  say  whether 
the  allusion  is  historic,  as  of  a  fact  that  had  happened,  or 
only  a  vague  generality.  Perhaps  the  latter  is  the  most 
justifiable  surmise. 

I  have  in  the  many  preceding  pages  been  citing  ancient 
eclipses,  for  the  reason,  more  or  less  plainly  expressed, 
that  they  are  of  value  to  astronomers  as  assisting  to  define 
the  theory  of  the  Moon's  motions  in  its  orbit,  and  this 
they  should  do ;  but  it  is  not  unreasonable  to  bring  this 
chapter  to  a  close  by  giving  the  views  of  an  eminent 
American  astronomer  as  to  the  objections  to  placing  too 
much  reliance  on  ancient  accounts  of  eclipses.  Says  Prof. 
S.  Newcomb  \ : — "  The  first  difficulty  is  to  be  reasonably 
sure  that  a  total  eclipse  was  really  the  phenomenon  ob- 
served. Many  of  the  statements  supposed  to  refer  to 
total  eclipses  are  so  vague  that  they  may  be  referred  to 
other  less  rare  phenomena.  It  must  never  be  for- 
gotten that  we  are  dealing  with  an  age  when  accurate 
observations  and  descriptions  of  natural  phenomena  were 
unknown,  and  when  mankind  was  subject  to  be  imposed 
upon  by  imaginary  wonders  and  prodigies.  The  circum- 


*  Homer,  Odyssey,  \ol.  ii.  p.  328.     Clarendon  Press  Series, 
t  Washington  Observations,  1875,  Appendix  II.,  p.  18. 


ANCIENT  ECLIPSES  OF  THE  SUN.  109 

stance  which  we  should  regard  as  most  unequivocally 
marking  a  total  eclipse  is  the  visibility  of  the  stars  during 
the  darkness.  But  even  this  can  scarcely  be  regarded  as 
conclusive,  because  Venus  may  be  seen  when  there  is  no 
eclipse,  and  may  be  quite  consoicuous  in  an  annular  or  a 
considerable  partial  eclipse.  The  exaggeration  of  a  single 
object  into  a  plural  is  in  general  very  easy.  Another  diffi- 
culty is  to  be  sure  of  the  locality  where  the  eclipse  was 
total.  It  is  commonly  assumed  that  the  description 
necessarily  refers  to  something  seen  where  the  writer 
flourished,  or  where  he  locates  his  story.  It  seems  to  me 
that  this  cannot  be  safely  done  unless  the  statement  is 
made  in  connection  with  some  battle  or  military  move- 
ment, in  which  case  we  may  presume  the  phenomena  to 
have  been  seen  by  the  army." 


CHAPTER   XI. 

ECLIPSES    OF    THE    SUN    MENTIONED    IN    HISTORY. — 
THE    CHRISTIAN   ERA  TO  THE   NORMAN   CONQUEST. 

THE  Christian  Era  is,  for  several  reasons,  a  suitable 
point  of  time  from  which  to  take  a  new  departure  in 
speaking  of  historical  eclipses,  although  the  First  Century, 
at  least,  might  obviously  be  regarded  as  belonging  to 
classical  history  —but  let  that  pass. 

Dion  Cassius  *  relates  that  on  a  date  corresponding  to 
March  28,  A.D.  5,  the  Sun  was  partly  eclipsed.  Johnson 
says  that  the  central  line  passed  over  Norway  and  Sweden. 
It  seems,  perhaps,  a  little  strange  that  a  writer  who  lived 
in  Bithynia  in  the  3rd  Century  of  the  Christian  Era  should 
have  picked  up  any  information  about  something  that 

*Hist.  Rome,  Booklv.,  chap.  22. 


1 10  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

happened  in  the  extreme  North  of  Europe  two  centuries 
previously.  But  probably  the  eclipse  must  have  been 
seen  in  Italy. 

On  November  24,  A.D.  29,  there  happened  an  eclipse 
of  the  Sun  which  is  sometimes  spoken  of  as  the  "  eclipse 
of  Phlegon."  Eusebius,  the  ecclesiastical  historian,  re- 
cords Phlegon's  testimony.  Phlegon  was  a  native  of 
Tralles  in  Lydia,  and  one  of  the  Emperor  Adrian's  freed- 
men.  The  eclipse  in  question  happened  at  noon,  and  the 
stars  were  seen.  It  was  total,  and  the  line  of  totality,  ac- 
cording to  Hind,*  passed  across  the  Black  Sea  from  near 
Odessa  to  Sinope,  thence  near  the  site  of  Nineveh  to  the 
Persian  Gulf.  A  partial  eclipse  with  four-fifths  of  the 
Sun's  diameter  covered  was  visible  at  Jerusalem.  This 
is  the  only  solar  eclipse  which  was  visible  at  Jerusalem 
during  the  period  usually  fixed  for  Christ's  public  ministry. 
This  eclipse  was  for  a  long  time,  and  by  various  writers, 
associated  with  the  darkness  which  prevailed  at  Jerusalem 
on  the  day  of  our  Lord's  Crucifixion,  but  there  seems  no 
warrant  whatever  for  associating  the  two  events.  The 
Crucifixion  darkness  was  assuredly  a  supernatural  phe- 
nomenon, and  there  is  nothing  supernatural  in  a  total 
eclipse  of  the  Sun.  To  this  it  may  be  added  that  both 
Tertullian  at  the  beginning  of  the  3rd  century  and  Lucian, 
the  martyr  of  Nicomedia,  who  died  in  312,  appealed  to 
the  testimony  of  national  archives  then  in  existence,  as 
witnessing  to  the  fact  that  a  supernatural  darkness  had 
prevailed  at  the  time  of  Christ's  death.  Moreover,  the 
generally  recorded  date  of  the  Crucifixion,  namely,  April 
3,  A.D.  33,  would  coincide  with  a  full  Moon.  As  it  hap- 
pened, that  full  Moon  suffered  eclipse,  but  she  emerged 
from  the  Earth's  shadow  about  a  quarter  of  an  hour 
before  she  rose  at  Jerusalem  (6  h.  36  m.  p.m.)  :  the 

*  Letter  in  the  Times,  July  19,  1872. 


ANCIENT   ECLIPSES   OF   THE   SUN.  m 

penumbra  continued  upon  her  disc  for  an  hour  after- 
wards. 

Speaking  of  the  Emperor  Claudius,  Dion  Cassius* 
says  : — "  There  was  going  to  be  an  eclipse  on  his  birthday. 
Claudius  feared  some  disturbance,  as  there  had  been 
other  prodigies,  so  he  put  forth  a  public  notice,  not  only 
that  the  obscuration  would  take  place  and  about  the  time 
and  magnitude  of  it,  but  also  about  the  causes  which  pro- 
duce such  events."  This  is  an  interesting  statement, 
especially  in  view  of  what  I  have  said  on  a  previous  page 
about  the  indifference  of  the  Romans  to  Astronomy.  It 
would,  likewise,  be  interesting  to  know  how  Claudius  ac- 
quired his  knowledge,  and  who  coached  him  up  in  the 
matter.  This  eclipse  occurred  on  August  I,  A.D.  45. 
Barely  half  the  Sun's  diameter  was  covered. 

Philostratus  t  states  that  "  about  this  time  while  he 
was  pursuing  his  studies  in  Greece  such  an  omen  was 
observable  in  the  heavens.  A  crown  resembling  Iris 
surrounded  the  disc  of  the  Sun  and  darkened  its  rays." 
"  About  this  time  "  is  to  be  understood  as  referring  to 
some  date  shortly  preceding  the  death  of  the  Emperor 
Domitian,  which  occurred  on  September  18,  A.D.  96.  This 
has  usually  been  regarded  as  the  earliest  allusion  to  what 
we  now  call  the  Sun's  "Corona";  or,  as  an  alternative 
idea,  that  the  allusion  is  simply  to  an  annular  eclipse  of 
the  Sun.  But  both  these  theories  have  been  called  in 
question ;  by  Johnson  because  he  cannot  find  an  eclipse 
which  in  his  view  of  things  will  respond  as  regards  date 
to  the  statement  of  Philostratus,  and  by  Lynn  on  the  same 
ground  and  on  other  grounds,  more  suo.  The  question 
of  identification  requires  looking  into  more  fully.  There 
was  a  total  eclipse  on  May  21,  A.D  95,  but  it  was  only 

*Hist.  Rome,  Book  lx.,  chap.  26. 

t  Life  of  Apollonius  of  Tyana,  Book  viii.,  c.  23. 


112  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

visible  as  a  partial  eclipse  in  Western  Asia  and  not  visible 
at  all  in  Greece.  This  is  given  as  the  conclusion  arrived 
at  by  the  German  astronomer  Ginzel.  But  it  does  not 
seem  to  me  sufficient  to  overthrow,  without  further  in- 
vestigation, the  fairly  plain  language  of  Philostratus,  which 
is  possibly  confirmed  by  a  passage  in  Plutarch  *  in  which 
he  discusses  certain  eclipse  phenomena  in  the  light  of  a 
recent  eclipse.  The  date  of  Plutarch's  "  recent  "  eclipse 
is  somewhat  uncertain,  but  that  fact  does  not  necessarily 
militate  against  his  testimony  respecting  the  Corona  or 
what  is  regarded  to  have  been  such.  The  statement  of 
Philostratus,  treated  as  a  mention  of  a  total  solar  eclipse, 
is  accepted  as  sufficiently  conclusive  by  Sir  W.  Huggins 
and  the  late  Professor  R.  Grant.  Johnson,  to  meet  the 
supposed  difficulty  of  finding  an  eclipse  to  accord  with  the 
assertion  of  the  historian,  suggests  that  "  perhaps  some 
peculiar  solar  halo  or  mock  Sun,  or  other  meteorological 
formation  "  is  referred  to.  But  Stockwell  has  advanced 
very  good  reasons  for  the  opinion  that  the  eclipse  of  Sept. 
3,  A.D.  1 1 8,  fully  meets  the  circumstances  of  the  case. 
Grant's  opinion  is  given  in  these  emphatic  words  :— "  It  ap- 
pears to  me  that  the  words  here  quoted  [from  Apollonius] 
refer  beyond  all  doubt  to  a  total  eclipse  of  the  Sun,  and 
thus  the  phenomenon  seen  encompassing  the  Sun's  disc 
was,  really  as  well  as  verbally,  identical  with  the  modern 
Corona."  f 

With  the  end  of  the  first  century  of  the  Christian  Era 
we  may  be  said  to  quit  the  realms  of  classical  history  and 
to  pass  on  to  eclipse  records  of  a  different  character,  and, 
so  far  as  regards  European  observations,  of  comparatively 
small  scientific  value  or  usefulness.  Our  information  is 
largely  derived  from  ecclesiastical  historians  and,  later  on, 

*  Plut.  Opera  Mor.  et  Phil.,  vol.  xix.  p.  682.     Ed.  Lipsiae,  1778. 
\  Ast.  Nach,  No.  1838,  vol.  Ixxvii.  p.  223  :  March  31,  1871. 


ANCIENT  ECLTPSES  OF  THE  SUN.  113 

from  monkish  chronicles,  which  as  a  rule  are  meagre 
in  a  surprising  degree.  Perhaps  I  ought  not  to  say  "  sur- 
prising/' because  after  the  times  of  the  Greek  astronomers 
(who  in  their  way  may  almost  be  regarded  as  profession- 
als), and  after  the  epoch  of  the  famous  Ptolemy,  Astrono- 
my well-nigh  ceased  to  exist  for  many  centuries  in  Europe, 
until,  say,  the  I5th  century,  barring  the  labours  of  the 
Arabians  and  their  kinsmen  the  Moors  in  Spain  in  the 
pth  and  following  centuries. 

In  examining  therefore  the  records  of  eclipses  which 
have  been  handed  down  to  us  from  A.D.  100  forwards 
through  more  than  1000  years,  I  shall  not  offer  my  readers 
a  long  dry  statement  of  eclipse  dates,  but  only  pick  out 
here  and  there  such  particular  eclipses  as  seem  to  present 
details  of  interest  for  some  or  other  reason. 

On  April  12,  237  A.D.,  there  was,  according  to  Julius 
Capitolinus,  an  eclipse  of  the  Sun,  so  great  "that  people 
thought  it  was  night,  and  nothing  could  be  done  without 
lights."  Ricciolus  remarked  that  this  eclipse  happened 
about  the  time  of  the  Sixth  Persecution  of  the  Christians, 
and  when  the  younger  Gordian  was  proclaimed  Emperor, 
after  his  father  had  declined  the  proffered  dignity,  being 
80  years  of  age.  The  line  of  totality  crossed  Italy  about 
5  p.m.  in  the  afternoon,  to  the  N.  of  Rome,  and  embraced 
Bologna. 

Calvisius  records,  on  the  authority  of  Cedrenus,  an 
eclipse  of  the  Sun  on  August  6,  324  A.D.,  which  was 
sufficiently  great  for  the  stars  to  be  seen  at  mid-day. 
The  eclipse  was  associated  with  an  earthquake,  which 
shattered  thirteen  citios  in  Campania.  Johnson  remarks 
that  no  more  than  three-fourths  of  the  Sun's  disc  would 
have  been  covered,  as  seen  in  Campania,  but  that  else- 
where in  Italy,  at  about  3  p.m.,  the  eclipse  was  much 
larger,  and  perhaps  one  or  two  of  the  planets  mifjht  have 
been  visible. 


114  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

On  July  17,  334  A.D.,  there  was  an  eclipse,  which 
seems  to  have  been  total  in  Sicily,  if  we  may  judge  from 
the  description  given  by  Julius  Firmicus.* 

Ammianus  Marcellinus  t  describes  an  eclipse,  to  which 
the  date  of  August  28,  360  A.D.,  has  been  assigned.  Hum- 
boldt,  quoting  this  historian,  says  that  the  description  is 
quite  that  of  a  solar  eclipse,  but  its  stated  long  duration 
(daybreak  to  noon),  and  the  word  caltgo  (fog  or  mist)  are 
awkward  factors.  Moreover,  the  historian  associates  it 
with  events  which  happened  in  the  eastern  provinces  of 
the  Roman  Empire ;  but  Johnson  seems  in  effect  to 
challenge  Marcellinus's  statement  when  he  says,  "  It  is 
true  that  there  was  an  annular  eclipse  of  the  Sun  in  the 
early  morning  on  the  above  date,  but  it  could  only  be  seen 
in  countries  E.  of  the  Persian  Gulf." 

About  the  time  that  Alaric,  King  of  the  Visigoths  ap- 
peared before  Rome,  there  was  a  gloom  so  great  that  the 
stars  appeared  in  the  daytime.  This  narrative  is  con- 
sidered to  apply  to  an  eclipse  of  the  Sun,  which  occurred 
on  June  18,410  A.D.  The  eclipse  was  an  annular  one, 
but  as  the  central  line  must  have  crossed  far  S.  of  Rome, 
the  stars  must  have  been  seen  not  at  Rome  but  some- 
where else. 

An  eclipse  occurred  on  July  19,  418  A.D.,  which  is  re- 
markable for  a  twofold  reason.  People -had  an  opportu- 
nity not  only  of  seeing  an  eclipse,  but  also  a  comet.  We 
owe  the  account  of  the  circumstances  to  Philostorgius.J: 
who  tells  us  that — "  On  July  19,  towards  the  8th  hour  of 
the  day,  the  Sun  was  so  eclipsed,  that  even  the  stars  were 
visible.  But  at  the  same  time  that  the  Sun  was  thus  hid, 
a  light,  in  the  form  of  a  cone,  was  seen  in  the  sky ;  some 

*  Matheseos,  Lib.  i.,  cap.  2,  p.  5,  Basilese.     1533. 

•f  Histories,  Lib.  xx.,  cap.  3,  sec.  i. 

%  Epitome  Histories  Ecclesiastics,  Lib.  xii.,  cap.  8. 


ANCIENT   ECLIPSES   OF   THE   SUN.  115 

ignorant  people  called  it  a  comet,  but  in  this  light  we  saw 
nothing  that  announced  a  comet,  for  it  was  not  terminated 
by  a  tail ;  it  resembled  the  flame  of  a  torch,  subsisting  by 
itself,  without  any  star  for  its  base.  Its  movement  too 
was  very  different  from  that  of  a  comet.  It  was  first  seen 
to  the  E.  of  the  equinoxes ;  after  that,  having  passed 
through  the  last  star  in  the  Bear's  tail,  it  continued  slowly 
its  journey  towards  the  W.  Having  thus  traversed  the 
heavens,  it  at  length  disappeared,  having  lasted  more  than 
four  months.  It  first  appeared  about  the  middle  of  the 
summer,  and  remained  visible  until  nearly  the  end  of  au- 
tumn." 

Boillot,  a  French  writer,  has  suggested  that  this  de- 
scription is  that  of  the  zodiacal  light,  but  this  seems  out 
of  the  question  in  view  of  the  details  given  by  the  Chinese 
of  a  comet  having  been  visible  in  the  autumn  of  this  year 
for  1 1  weeks,  and  having  passed  through  the  square  of 
Ursa  Major.  Reverting  to  the  eclipse— Johnson  finds 
that  the  greatest  phase  at  Constantinople,  which  was  prob- 
ably the  place  of  observation,  occurred  at  about  half  an 
hour  after  noon,  when  a  thin  crescent  of  light  might  have 
been  seen  on  the  northern  limb  of  the  Sun.  From  this  it 
would  appear  that  the  central  line  of  eclipse  must  have 
passed  somewhat  to  the  south  of  Constantinople.  To 
the  same  effect  Hind,  who  found  that  -j^ths  of  the 
Sun's  diameter  was  covered  at  Constantinople. 

An  eclipse  of  the  Sun  seems  to  be  referred  to  by  Gre- 
gorius  Turonensis,  when  he  says  *  that : — "  Then  even  the 
Sun  appeared  hideous,  so  that  scarcely  a  third  part  of  it 
gave  light,  I  believe  on  account  of  such  deeds  of  wicked- 
ness and  shedding  of  innocent  blood."  This  would  seem 
to  have  been  the  eclipse  which  occurred  on  February  24, 
453  A.D.,  when  Attila  and  the  Huns  were  ravaging  Italy, 

*  Historia  Francorum,  Lib.  ii.,  cap.  3  (ad Jin). 


Il6  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

and  to  them  it  was  doubtless  that  the  writer  alluded. 
At  Rome  three-fourths  of  the  Sun's  disc  would  have  been 
eclipsed  at  sunset,  a  finding  which  tallies  fairly  with  the 
statement  of  Gregorius. 

It  is  not  till  far  into  the  6th  century  that  we  come 
upon  a  native  English  record  of  an  eclipse  of  the  Sun  as 
having  been  observed  in  England.  This  deficiency  in  our 
national  annals  is  thus  judiciously  explained  and  comment- 
ed on  by  our  clever  and  talented  American  authoress.* 
Speaking  of  the  eclipse  of  February  15,  538  A.D.,  she 
says  :— "  The  accounts,  however,  are  greatly  confused  and 
uncertain,  as  would  perhaps  be  natural  fully  60  years  be- 
fore the  advent  of  St.  Augustine,  and  when  Britain  was 
helplessly  harassed  with  its  continual  struggle  in  the  fierce 
hands  of  West  Saxons  and  East  Saxons,  of  Picts  and  con- 
quering Angles.  Men  have  little  time  to  record  celestial 
happenings  clearly,  much  less  to  indulge  in  scientific  com- 
ment and  theorising  upon  natural  phenomena,  when  the 
history  of  a  nation  sways  to  and  fro  with  the  tide  of  battle, 
and  what  is  gained  to-day  may  be  fatally  lost  to-morrow. 
And  so  there  is  little  said  about  this  eclipse,  and  that  little 
is  more  vague  and  uncertain  even  than  the  monotonous 
plaints  of  Gildas — the  one  writer  whom  Britain  has  left 
us,  in  his  meagre  accounts  of  the  conquest  of  Kent,  and 
the  forsaken  walls  and  violated  shrines  of  this  early  epoch." 

The  well-known  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle  \  is  our  au- 
thority for  this  eclipse  having  been  noted  in  England,  but 
the  record  is  bare  indeed : — "  In  this  year  the  Sun  was 
eclipsed  14  days  before  the  Calends  of  March  from  early 
morning  till  9  a.m."  Tycho  Brahe,  borrowing  from  Cal- 
visius,  who  borrowed  from  somebody  else,  says  that  the 
eclipse  happened  "  in  the  5th  year  of  Henry,  King  of  the 

*  Mrs.  D.  P.  Todd,  Total  Eclipses  of  the  Sun,  p.  101. 

t  The  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle,  vol.  ii.  p.  14.  Ed.  B.  Thorpe,  1861. 


ANCIENT   ECLIPSES  OF  THE  SUN.  117 

West  Saxons,  at  the  ist  hour  of  the  day  till  nearly  the  3rd, 
or  immediately  after  sunrise."  Johnson  finds  that  at 
London  nearly  three-fourths  of  the  Sun's  disc  was  covered 
at  7.43  a.m. 

The  next  eclipse  recorded  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  Chron- 
icle is  somewhat  difficult  to  explain.  It  is  said  that  in 
540  A.D.  "The  Sun  was  eclipsed  on  the  I2th  of  the 
Calends  of  July  [=  June  20],  and  the  stars  appeared  full 
nigh  half  an  hour  after  9  a.m."  Johnson's  calculations 
make  the  middle  of  the  eclipse  to  have  occurred  at  about 
7.37  a.m.  at  London,  two-thirds  of  the  Sun's  diameter 
being  covered.  He  notes  that  the  Moon's  semi-diameter 
was  nearly  at  its  maximum  whilst  the  Sun's  semi-diameter 
was  nearly  at  its  minimum — a  favourable  combination  for 
a  long  totality.  The  visibility  of  th^  stars  seems  difficult 
to  explain  in  connection  with  this  eclipse,  and  therefore  he 
suggests  that  the  annalist  has  made  a  mistake  of  four 
years  and  meant  to  refer  to  the  eclipse  of  September  i, 
536  A.D.,  but  this  does  not  seem  a  satisfactory  theory. 

The  year  after  Pope  Martin  held  a  Synod  to  condemn 
the  Monothelite  heresy,  an  eclipse  of  the  Sun  took  place. 
It  is  mentioned  by  Tycho  Brahe  in  his  catalogue  of  eclipses 
as  having  been  seen  in  England.  Johnson  gives  the  date 
as  February  6,  650  A.D.,  and  finds  that  the  Sun  was  three- 
fourths  obscured  at  London  at  3.30  p.m. 

The  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle  tells  us  under  the  year 
A.D.  664  that  "  In  this  year  the  Sun  was  eclipsed  on  the 
5th  of  the  Nones  of  May  ;  and  Earcenbryht,  King  of  the 
Kentish  people  died  and  Ecgbryht  his  son  succeeded  to 
the  Kingdom."  Kepler  thought  this  eclipse  had  been  to- 
tal in  England,  and  Johnson  calculating  for  London  found 
that  on  May  i,  at  5  p.m.,  there  would  only  have  been  a 
very  thin  crescent  of  the  Sun  left  uncovered  on  the  south- 
ern limb,  so  that  the  line  of  totality  would  have  passed 
across  the  country  some  distance  to  the  N.  of  London. 


Il8  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

The  eclipse  of  Dec.  7,  A.D.  671,  seems  to  be  associated 
with  a  comic  tragedy.  The  Caliph  Moawiyah  had  a  fancy 
to  remove  Mahomet's  pulpit  from  Medina  to  his  own  resi- 
dence at  Damascus.  "  He  said  that  the  walking-stick 
and  pulpit  of  the  Apostle  of  God  should  not  remain  in  the 
hands  of  the  murderers  of  Othman.  Great  search  was 
made  for  the  walking-stick,  and  at  last  they  found  it. 
Then  they  went  in  obedience  to  his  commands  to  remove 
the  pulpit,  when  immediately,  to  their  great  surprise  and 
astonishment,  the  Sun  was  eclipsed  to  that  degree  that 
the  stars  appeared."  *  Once  again  the  question  of  visible 
stars  is  in  some  sense  a  source  of  difficulty.  Hind  found 
that  the  eclipse  was  annular  on  the  central  line.  At 
Medina  the  greatest  phase  occurred  at  loh.  43m.  a.m. 
when  -j^ths  of  the  Sun's  diameter  was  obscured.  Hind 
suggests  that  in  the  clear  skies  of  that  part  of  the  world 
such  a  degree  of  eclipse  might  be  sufficient  to  bring  out 
the  brighter  planets  or  stars.  At  any  rate  no  larger 
eclipse  visible  at  Medina  occurred  about  this  epoch.  Prof. 
Ockley  seems  to  refer  to  this  eclipse  in  making,  on  the  au- 
thority of  several  Arabian  writers,  the  mention  he  does 
of  an  eclipse  in  the  quotation  just  given. 

Perhaps  this  will  be  a  convenient  place  to  bring  in 
some  remarks  on  certain  Arabian  observations  of  eclipses 
only  made  known  to  the  scientific  world  in  modern  times. 
That  the  Arabians  were  very  capable  practical  astrono- 
mers has  long  been  recognised  as  a  well-established  fact, 
and  if  it  had  not  been  for  them  there  would  have  been  a 
tremendous  blank  in  the  history  of  astronomy  during  at 
least  six  centuries  from  about  the  year  A.D.  700  onwards. 
In  the  year  1804  there  was  published  at  Paris  a  French 
translation  of  an  Arabian  manuscript  preserved  at  the 

*  Prof.  S.  Ockley,  History  of  the  Saracens,  vol.  u.  p.  no. 
Camb.  1757. 


ANCIENT   ECLIPSES   OF   THE   SUN.  119 

University  of  Leyden  of  which  little  was  known  until 
near  the  end  of  the  last  century.  The  manuscript  was 
then  sent  to  Paris  on  loan  to  the  French  Government 
which  caused  a  translation  to  be  made  by  "  Citizen " 
Caussin,  and  this  was  published  under  the  title  of  Le 
Livre  de  la  grande  Table  Hakenate.*  Caussin  was 
Professor  of  Arabic  at  the  College  of  France.  Newcomb 
considers  this  to  contain  the  earliest  exact  astronomical 
observations  of  eclipses  which  have  reached  us.  He  re- 
marks that  some  of  the  data  left  us  by  Ptolemy,  Theon, 
Albategnius  and  others  may  be  the  results  of  actual  ob- 
servations, but  in  no  case,  so  far  as  is  known,  have  the 
figures  of  the  actual  observations  been  handed  down.  For 
example,  we  cannot  regard  "  midnight  "  nor  "  the  middle 
of  an  eclipse  "  as  moments  capable  of  direct  observation 
without  instruments  of  precision ;  but  in  the  Arabian 
work  under  consideration  we  find  definite  statements  of 
the  altitudes  of  the  heavenly  bodies  at  the  moments  of  the 
beginning  and  ending  of  eclipses — data  not  likely  to  be 
tampered  with  in  order  to  agree  with  the  results  of  calcula- 
tion. The  eclipses  recorded  are  28  in  number,  and  usually 
the  beginning  and  end  of  them  were  observed.  The  alti- 
tudes are  given  sometimes  only  in  whole  degrees,  some- 
times in  coarse  fractions  of  a  degree.  The  most  serious 
source  of  error  to  be  confronted  in  turning  these  observa- 
tions to  account  arises  from  the  uncertainty  as  to  how 
long  after  the  first  contact  the  eclipse  was  perceived  and 
the  altitude  taken  ;  and  how  long  before  the  true  end  was 
the  eclipse  lost  sight  of.  Making  the  best  use  he  could 
of  the  records  available  Newcomb  found  that  they  could 

*  It  should  be  stated  that  prior  to  the  publication  of  the  work 
in  a  book  form  the  greater  part  of  th3  eclipse  observations 
had  been  published  in  the  Mtmoires  de  F  Institut  National  des 
Sciences  et  Arts :  Sciences  Mathematiques  et  Physiques^  tome  ii. 


120  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

safely  be  employed  in  his  investigations  into  the  theory  of 
the  Moon. 

The  observations  were  taken,  some  at  Bagdad  and 
the  remainder  at  Cairo.  I  do  not  propose  to  occupy 
space  by  transcribing  the  accounts  in  detail,  but  one  ex- 
tract may  be  offered  as  a  sample  of  the  rest — "  Eclipse  of 
the  Sun  observed  at  Bagdad,  August  18,  928  A.D.  The 
Sun  rose  about  one-fourth  eclipsed.  We  looked  at  the 
Sun  on  a  surface  of  water  and  saw  it  distinctly.  At  the 
end  when  we  found  no  part  of  the  Sun  was  any  longer 
eclipsed,  and  that  its  disc  appeared  in  the  water  as  a  com- 
plete circle,  its  altitude  was  12°  in  the  E.,  less  the  one- 
third  of  a  division  of  the  instrument,  which  itself  was 
divided  to  thirds  of  a  degree.  One  must  therefore  reduce 
the  stated  altitude  by  one-ninth  of  a  degree,  leaving,  there- 
fore, the  true  altitude  as  11°  53'  20"."  The  skill  and 
care  shown  in  this  record  shows  that  the  Arab  who  ob- 
served this  eclipse  nearly  a  thousand  years  ago  must  have 
been  a  man  of  a  different  type  from  an  ordinary  resident  at 
Bagdad  in  the  year  1899.  No  description  is  given  of  the 
instrument  used,  but  presumably  it  was  some  kind  of  a 
quadrant.  It  does  not  appear  why  some  of  the  ob- 
servations were  made  at  Bagdad  and  some  at  Cairo. 
The  Bagdad  observations  commence  with  an  eclipse  of 
the  Sun  on  November  30,  829,  and  end  with  an  eclipse 
of  the  Moon  on  November  5,  933.  The  Cairo  observa- 
tions begin  with  an  eclipse  of  the  Sun  on  December  1 2, 
977,  and  end  with  an  eclipse  of  the  Sun  on  January  24, 
1004.  These  statements  apply  to  the  25  observations  which 
Newcomb  considered  were  trustworthy  enough  to  be  em- 
ployed in  his  researches,  but  he  rejected  three  as  imperfect. 

I  have  broken  away  from  the  strict  thread  of  chrono- 
logical sequence  in  order  to  keep  together  the  notes  re- 
specting Arabian  observations  of  eclipses.  Let  us  now 
revert  to  the  European  eclipses. 


ANCIENT   ECLIPSES  OF  THE  SUN.  1 21 

Under  the  date  of  A.D.  733,  the  Anglo-Saxon  Chron- 
icle tells  us  that,  "  In  this  year  yEthelbald  captured  Som- 
erton  ;  and  the  Sun  was  eclipsed,  and  all  the  Sun's  disc 
was  like  a  black  shield  ;  and  Acca  was  driven  from  his 
bishopric."  Johnson  suggests  that  the  reference  is  to  an 
annular  eclipse  which  he  finds  occurred  on  August  14,  at 
about  8J  h.  in  the  morning.  In  Schnurrer's  Chronik  der 
Seuchen  (pt.  i.,  §  113,  p.  164),  it  is  stated  that,  "  One  year 
after  the  Arabs  had  been  driven  back  across  the  Pyrenees 
after  the  battle  of  Tours,  the  Sun  was  so  much  darkened  on 
the  i gth  of  August  as  to  excite  universal  terror."  It  may 
be  that  the  English  eclipse  is  here  referred  to,  and  a  date 
wrong  by  five  days  assigned  to  it  by  Schnurrer.  Hum- 
boldt  (Cosmos,  vol.  iv.  p.  384,  Bohn's  ed.)  reports  this 
eclipse  in  an  enumeration  he  gives  of  instances  of  the  Sun 
having  been  darkened. 

On  May  5,  A.D.  840,  there  happened  an  eclipse  of  the 
Sun  which,  amongst  other  effects,  is  said  to  have  so  greatly 
frightened  Louis  Le  Debonnaire  (Charlemagne's  son)  that 
it  contributed  to  his  death.  The  Emperor  was  taken  ill 
at  Worms,  and  having  been  removed  to  Ingelheim,  an 
island  in  the  Rhine,  near  Mayence,  died  there  on  June  20. 
Hind  *  found  that  this  was  a  total  eclipse,  and  that  the 
northern  limit  of  totality  passed  about  100  miles  south  of 
Worms.  The  middle  of  the  eclipse  occurred  at  ih.  15111. 
p.m.  at  an  altitude  of  57°.  The  duration  of  the  eclipse 
was  unusually  long,  namely  about  5^  minutes.  With  the 
Sun  so  high  and  the  obscuration  lasting  so  long,  this 
eclipse  must  have  been  an  unusually  imposing  one,  and 
well  calculated  to  inspire  special  alarm. 

On  Oct.  29,  878,  in  the  reign  of  King  Alfred,  there  was 
a  total  eclipse  visible  at  London.  The  mention  of  it  in 
the  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle  is  as  follows  : — "  The  Sun 

*  Letter  in  the  Times,  July  19,  1872. 


122  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

was  eclipsed  at  i  hour  of  the  day."  No  month  is  given, 
and  the  year  is  said  to  have  been  879,  which  is  undoubt- 
edly wrong.  Hind  found  that  the  central  line  of  the 
eclipse  passed  about  20  miles  N.  of  London,  and  that  the 
totality  lasted  im.  515.  Tycho  Brahe,  in  his  Historia 
Calestis,  quotes  from  the  Annales  Fuldenses  a  statement 
that  the  Sun  was  so  much  darkened  after  the  gth  hour 
that  the  stars  appeared  in  the  heavens. 

Thorpe  in  his  edition  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle 
quotes  from  Mr.  Richard  Price  a  note  which  assigns  the 
date  of  March  14,  880,  to  this  eclipse,  and  cites  in  con- 
firmation a  passage  from  the  Chronicle  of  Florence  of 
Worcester,  anno  879.  The  880  eclipse  is  mentioned  by 
Asser  in  his  De  Vitd  et  Rebus gestis  Alfredi  in  the  words 
following : — "  In  the  same  year  [879]  an  ecliuse  of  the 
Sun  took  place  between  three  o'clock  and  the  evening, 
but  nearer  three  o'clock."  The  confusion  of  dates  is  re- 
markable. 

In  the  Chronicon  Scotorum,  under  the  date  of  885,  we 
find  :— "  An  eclipse  of  the  Sun  ;  and  stars  were  seen 
in  the  heavens."  The  reference  appears  to  be  to  the 
total  eclipse  of  June  16,  A.D.  885.  The  totality  lasted 
more  than  four  minutes,  and  as  the  stars  are  said  to  have 
been  visible  in  the  North  of  Ireland,  doubtless  that  part  of 
Ireland  came  within  the  eclipse  limits. 

On  Dec.  22,  968,  there  was  an  eclipse  or  the  Sun, 
which  was  almost  total  at  London  at  about  8h.  33m.  a.m., 
or  soon  after  sunrise.  The  central  line  passed  across  the 
S.-W.  of  England,  and  thence  through  France  to  the 
Mediterranean.  One  Leon,  a  deacon  at  Corfu,  observed 
this  eclipse,  and  has  left  behind  what  probably  is  the  first 
perfectly  explicit  mention  of  the  Corona.* 

On  Aug.  30,  1030,  there  happened  an  eclipse  visible  in 

*  J.  F.  J.  Schmidt,  Ast.  Nach.^  vol.  Ixxvii.  p.  127,  Feb.  i,  1871. 


ANCIENT   ECLIPSES   OF  THE   SUN.  123 

Norway,  which  has  already  been  alluded  to  on  a  previous 
page  under  the  name  of  the  "  eclipse  of  Stiklastad." 
This  was  one  of  those  eclipses,  the  circumstances  of 
which  were  examined  many  years  ago  in  detail  by  Sir  G. 
B.  Airy,*  because  he  thought  that  information  of  value 
might  be  obtained  therefrom  with  respect  to  the  motions 
of  the  Moon.  Its  availability  for  that  purpose  has,  how- 
ever, been  seriously  questioned  by  Professor  Newcomb. 
Stiklastad  is  a  place  where  a  battle  was  fought,  at  which 
Olav,  the  King  of  Norway,  is  said  to  have  been  killed. 
While  the  battle  was  in  progress  the  Sun  was  totally 
eclipsed,  and  a  red  light  appeared  around  it.  This  is  re- 
garded as  an  early  record  of  the  Corona,  though  not  the 
first,  f  Johnson  found  that  the  eclipse  was  nearly  total  at 
about  2h.  21  m.  p.m. 

In  1033  there  Happened  on  June  29  an  eclipse  of  the 
Sun,  which  evidently  had  many  observers,  because  it  is 
mentioned  by  many  contemporary  writers.  For  instance, 
the  French  historian,  Glaber.f  says  that  "  on  the  3rd  of  the 
Calends  of  July  there  was  an  eclipse  from  the  sixth  to  the 
eighth  hour  of  the  day  exceedingly  terrible.  For  the  Sun 
became  of  a  sapphire  colour  ;  in  its  upper  part  having  the 
likeness  of  a  fourth  part  of  the  Moon."  This  sufficiently 
harmonises  with  Johnson's  calculations  that  about  four- 
fifths  of  the  Sun  on  the  lower  side  was  covered  at  loh. 
5om.  in  the  morning. 

*  Memoirs,  R.A.S.,  vol.  xxvi.  p.  131.     1858. 

f  J.  L.  E.  Dreyer,  Nature,  vol.  xvi.  p.  549,  Oct.  25,  1877. 

\  Historiarum  Sui  Temporis,  Lib.  iv.,  cap.  9. 


124  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

ECLIPSES    OF    THE    SUN    MENTIONED    IN    HISTORY. — 
MEDIEVAL  AND   MODERN. 

ONE  of  the  most  celebrated  eclipses  of  mediaeval  times 
was  that  of  August  2,  1133,  visible  as  a  total  eclipse  in 
Scotland.  It  was  considered  a  presage  of  misfortune  to 
Henry  I.  and  was  thus  referred  to  by  William  of  Malmes- 
bury  * : — 

"  The  elements  manifested  their  sorrow  at  this  great 
man's  last  departure  from  England.  For  the  Sun  on  that 
day  at  the  6th  hour  shrouded  his  glorious  face,  as  the 
poets  say,  in  hideous  darkness,  agitating  the  hearts  of  men 
by  an  eclipse ;  and  on  the  6th  day  of  the  week  early  in  the 
morning  there  was  so  great  an  earthquSke  that  the  ground 
appeared  absolutely  to  sink  down  ;  an  horrid  noise  being 
first  heard  beneath  the  surface." 

This  eclipse  is  also  alluded  to  in  the  Anglo-Saxon 
Chronicle  though  the  year  is  wrongly  given  as  1 135  instead 
of  1133  as  it  certainly  was.  The  Chronicle  says  : — "  In 
this  year  King  Henry  went  over  sea  at  Lammas,  and  the 
second  day  as  he  lay  and  slept  on  the  ship  the  day  darkened 
over  all  lands ;  and  the  Sun  became  as  it  were  a  three- 
night-old  Moon,  and  the  stars  about  it  at  mid-day.  Men 
were  greatly  wonder-stricken  and  affrighted,  and  said  that 
a  great  thing  should  come  hereafter.  So  it  did,  for  the 
same  year  the  king  died  on  the  following  day  after  St. 
Andrew's  Mass-day,  Dec.  2,  in  Normandy."  The  king 
did  die  in  1 135,  but  there  was  no  eclipse  of  the  August  new 
Moon,  and  without  doubt  the  writer  has  muddled  up  the 
year  of  the  eclipse  and  of  the  king's  departure  from 
England  (to  which  he  never  returned)  and  the  year  of  his 

*Historia  Novella^  Lib.  i.,  sec.  8. 


MEDIAEVAL   ECLIPSES  OF  THE  SUN.  125 

death.  Calvisius  states  that  this  eclipse  was  observed  in 
Flanders  and  that  the  stars  appeared. 

Respecting  the  above  -  mentioned  discrepancy  Mrs. 
Todd  aptly  remarks  :  —  "  So  Henry  must  have  died  in  1  133, 
which  he  did  not  ;  or  else  there  must  have  been  an  eclipse 
in  1135,  which  there  -was  net.  But  this  is  not  the  only 
labyrinth  into  which  chronology  and  old  eclipses,  imagi- 
nation, and  computation,  lead  the  unwary  searcher."  Pro- 
fessor Freeman's  explanation  fairly  clears  up  the  difficulty  : 
—  "  The  fact  that  he  never  came  back  to  England,  together 
with  the  circumstances  of  his  voyage,  seems  to  have  made 
a  deep  impression  on  men's  minds.  In  popular  belief  the 
signs  and  wonders  which  marked  his  last  voyage  were 
transferred  to  the  Lammas-tide  before  his  death  two  years 
later."  *  The  central  line  of  this  eclipse  traversed  Scotland 
from  Ross  to  Forfar  and  the  eclipse  was  of  course  large  in 
every  part  of  the  country.  The  totality  lasted  4m.  265.  in 
Forfarshire. 

Hind  has  furnished  some  further  information  respect- 
ing this  eclipse.  It  appears  that  during  the  existence  of 
the  Kingdom  of  Jerusalem  created  by  the  Crusaders  an 
eclipse  occurred  which  would  appear  to  have  been  total  at 
Jerusalem  or  in  its  immediate  neighbourhood.  No  date  is 
given  and  a  date  can  only  be  guessed,  and  Hind  guessed 
that  the  eclipse  of  1  133  was  the  one  referred  to.  He  found 
that  after  leaving  Scotland  and  crossing  Europe  the  cen- 
tral line  of  the  1133  eclipse  entered  Palestine  near  Jaffa 
and  passed  over  Jerusalem  where  the  Sun  was  hidden  for 
4i  minutes  at  about  3h.  p.  m.  From  Nablous  on  the  N.  to 
Ascalon  on  the  S.  the  country  was  in  darkness  for  nearly 
the  same  period  of  time.  The  alternative  eclipses  to  this 
one  would  be  those  of  Sept.  4,  1  1  87,  magnitude  at  Jeru- 
salem j^ths  of  the  Sun's  diameter;  or  June  23,  1191, 


*  Norman  Conquest,  vol.  v.  p.  239. 


126  THE  STORY   OF  ECLIPSES. 

magnitude  at  the  same  place  about  T7oths ;  but  these  do 
not  seem  to  harmonise  so  well  with  the  accounts  handed 
down  to  us  as  does  the  eclipse  of  1133. 

In  1140,  on  March  20,  there  happened  a  total  eclipse 
of  the  Sun  visible  in  England  which  is  thus  referred  to  by 
William  of  Malmesbury  * :  — 

"  During  this  year,  in  Lent,  on  the  I3th  of  the  Calends 
of  April,  at  the  9th  hour  of  the  4th  day  of  the  week,  there 
was  an  eclipse,  throughout  England,  as  I  have  heard.  With 
us,  indeed,  and  with  all  our  neighbours,  the  obscuration  of 
the  Sun  also  was  so  remarkable,  that  persons  sitting  at 
table,  as  it  then  happened  almost  everywhere,  for  it  was 
Lent,  at  first  feared  that  Chaos  was  come  again  :  after- 
wards, learning  the  cause,  they  went  out  and  beheld  the 
stars  around  the  Sun.  It  was  thought  and  said  by  many 
not  untruly,  that  the  King  [Stephen]  would  not  continue  a 
year  in  the  goverment." 

The  same  eclipse  is  also  thus  mentioned  in  the  Ang  o- 
Saxon  Chronicle : — "  Afterwards  in  Lent  the  Sun  and  the 
day  darkened  about  the  noontide  of  the  day,  when  men 
were  eating,  and  they  lighted  candles  to  eat  by ;  and  that 
was  the  I3th  of  the  Calends  of  April,  March  20.  Men 
were  greatly  wonder-stricken."  The  greatest  obscuration 
at  London  took  place  at  2h.  36m.  p.  m.,  but  it  is  not  quite 
clear  whether  the  line  of  totality  did  actually  pass  over 
London. 

It  was  long  supposed  that  this  eclipse  was  total  at 
London,  an  idea  which  seems  to  have  arisen  from  Halley 
having  told  the  Royal  Society  anent  the  total  eclipse  of 
May  3,  1715,  that  he  could  not  find  that  any  total  eclipse 
had  been  visible  at  London  since  March  20,  1 140.  In 
consequence  of  this  statement  of  Halley's,  Hind  carefully 
investigated  the  circumstances  of  this  eclipse,  and  found 

*  Historia  Novella,  Lib.  ii.,  sec.  35. 


MEDLEVAL   ECLIPSES   OF  THE   SUN.          127 

that  it  had  not  been  total  at  London.  The  central  line 
entered  our  island  at  Aberystvvith,  and  passing  near 
Shrewsbury,  Stafford,  Derby,  Nottingham,  and  Lincoln, 
reached  the  German  Ocean,  10  miles  S.  of  Saltfleet.  The 
southern  limit  of  the  zone  of  totality  passed  through  the 
South  Midland  counties,  and  the  nearest  point  of  approach 
to  London  was  a  point  on  the  borders  of  Northamptonshire 
and  Bedfordshire.  For  a  position  on  the  central  line  near 
Stafford,  Hind  found  that  the  totality  began  at  2h.  36m. 
p.  m.  local  mean  time,  the  duration  being  3m.  265.,  and 
the  Sun's  altitude  being  more  than  30°.  The  stars  seen 
were  probably  the  planets  Mercury  and  Venus,  then  within 
a  degree  of  each  other,  and  10°  W.  of  the  Sun,  and 
perhaps  the  stars  forming  the  well-known  "  Square  of 
Pegasus."  Mars  and  Saturn  were  also,  at  that  time,  with- 
in a  degree  of  each  other,  but  very  near  the  western  hori- 
zon. It  is  therefore  necessary  to  look  further  back  than 
1 140  to  find  a  total  solar  eclipse  visible  in  London.* 

A  solar  eclipse  seems  to  have  been  alluded  to  by  cer- 
tain historians  as  having  happened  in  A.D.  1153.  We 
have  the  obscure  statement  that  "  something  singular  hap- 
pened to  the  Sun  the  day  after  the  Conversion  of  St.  Paul." 
A  somewhat  large  eclipse  having  been  visible  at  Augsburg 
in  Germany,  on  January  26,  this  may  have  been  the  "  some- 
thing "  referred  to.  It  would  seem  that  about  -f^ths  of 
the  Sun's  diameter  was  covered. 

On  May  14,  A.D.  1230,  there  happened  a  great  eclipse 
of  the  Sun,  thus  described  by  Roger  of  Wendovert: — 
"  On  the  I4th  of  May,  which  was  the  Tuesday  in  Roga- 
tion Week,  an  unusual  eclipse  of  the  Sun  took  place  very 
early  in  the  morning,  immediately  after  sunrise ;  and  it 

*  Letter  in  the  Times,  July  28,  1871. 

t  Rogerus  de  Wendover,  Flores  Historiarum,  vol.  ii.  p.  535, 
Bohn's  ed. 


128  THE  STORY  OF   ECLIPSES. 

became  so  dark  that  the  labourers,  who  had  commenced 
their  morning's  work,  were  obliged  to  leave  it,  and  re- 
turned again  to  their  beds  to  sleep  ;  but  in  about  an  hour's 
time,  to  the  astonishment  of  many,  the  Sun  regained  its 
usual  brightness."  This  eclipse,  as  regards  its  total  phase, 
is  said  by  Johnson  to  have  begun  in  the  horizon,  a  little 
to  the  N.  of  London,  in  the  early  morning. 

On  June  3,  A.D.  1239,  an^  October  6,  1241,  there  oc- 
curred total  eclipses  of  the  Sun,  which  have  been  very 
carefully  discussed  by  Professor  Celoria  of  Milan,  with 
the  view  of  using  them  in  investigations  into  the  Moon's 
mean  motion.*  The  second  of  these  eclipses  is  men- 
tioned by  Tycho  Brahe.f  He  states  that  "a  few  _  stars 
appeared  about  noonday,  and  the  Sun  was  hidden  from 
sight  in  a  clear  sky."  The  eclipse  was  total  in  Eastern 
Europe. 

Dr.  Lingard.J  the  well-known  Roman  Catholic  histo- 
rian, speaking  of  the  battle  of  Cressy,  which  was  fought 
on  August  26,  1346,  says: — "Never,  perhaps,  were  prep- 
arations for  battle  made  under  circumstances  so  truly  aw- 
ful. On  that  very  day  the  Sun  suffered  a  partial  eclipse : 
birds  in  clouds,  precursors  of  a  storm,  flew  screaming 
over  the  two  armies ;  and  the  rain  fell  in  torrents,  accom- 
panied with  incessant  thunder  and  lightning.  About  5  in 
the  afternoon,  the  weather  cleared  up,  the  Sun  in  full 
splendour  darted  his  rays  in  the  eyes  of  the  enemy ;  and 
the  Genoese,  setting  up  their  shouts,  discharged  their 
quarrels."  This  was  not  an  eclipse,  for  none  was  due  to 
take  place ;  and  the  phenomenon  could  only  have  been 


*  Sugli  Eclissi  Solari  Totali  del  3  Giugno  1239,  e  del  6  Ottobre 
1241  in  the  Memorie  del  R.  Istituto  Lombardo  di  Scienze  e  Littere, 
vol.  xiii.  p.  275. 

t  Historia  Ccelestis,  vol.  i.  p.  38. 

\  Hist.  Engl.,  vol.  iii.  chap,  xviii.  p.  50,  4to.  ed. 


MEDIAEVAL   ECLIPSES   OF  THE   SUN.  129 

meteorological — dense  clouds  or  something  of  that  sort  in 
the  sky. 

On  June  16,  1406,  there  was  a  large  eclipse  of  the  Sun, 
T95ths  of  its  diameter  being  covered  at  London  ;  but  on 
the  Continent  it  seems  to  have  been  total.  It  is  stated 
that  the  darkness  was  such  that  people  could  hardly  recog- 
nise one  another. 

One  of  the  most  celebrated  eclipses  during  the  Middle 
Ages  was  undoubtedly  that  of  June  17,  1433.  This  was 
long  remembered  in  Scotland  as  the  "  Black  Hour,"  and 
its  circumstances  were  fully  investigated  some  years  ago 
by  Hind.  It  was  a  remarkable  eclipse  in  that  the  Moon 
was  within  1 3°  of  perigee  and  the  Sun  only  2°  from  apo- 
gee. The  central  line  traversed  Scotland  in  a  south-east- 
erly direction  from  Ross  to  Forfar,  passing  near  Inverness 
and  Dundee.  Maclaurin,*  who  lived  in  the  early  part  of 
the  last  century  mentions  that  in  his  time  a  manuscript 
account  of  this  eclipse  was  preserved  in  the  library  of  the 
University  of  Edinburgh  wherein  the  darkness  is  said  to 
have  come  on  at  about  3  p.m.,  and  to  have  been  very  pro- 
found. The  duration  of  the  totality  at  Inverness  was 
4m.  323. ;  at  Edinburgh  3m.  415.  The  central  line  passed 
from  Britain  to  the  N.  of  Frankfort-on-the-Maine,  through 
Bavaria,  to  the  Dardanelles,  to  the  S.  of  Aleppo  and 
thence  nearly  parallel  to  the  river  Euphrates  to  the  N.-E. 
border  of  Arabia.  In  Turkey,  according  to  Calvisius, 
"  near  evening  the  light  of  the  Sun  was  so  overpowered 
that  darkness  covered  the  land." 

In  1544,  on  Jan.  24,  there  occurred  an  eclipse  of  the 
Sun  which  was  nearly  but  not  quite  total.  The  chief  in- 
terest arises  from  the  fact  that  it  was  one  of  the  first  ob- 
served by  professed  astronomers :  Gemma  Frisius  saw  it 
at  Louvain. 

*  Phil.  Trans.,  vol.  xl.  p.  194.     1737. 
9 


130  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

Kepler  says  *  that  the  day  became  dark  like  the  twi- 
light of  evening  and  that  the  birds  which  from  the  break 
of  day  had  been  singing  became  mute.  The  middle  of 
the  eclipse  was  at  about  9  a.m. 

In  1 560  an  eclipse  of  the  Sun  took  place  which  was 
total  in  Spain  and  Portugal.  Clavius  who  observed  it  at 
Coimbra  saysf  that  "the  Sun  remained  obscured  for  no 
little  time  :  there  was  darkness  greater  than  that  of  night, 
no  one  could  see  where  he  trod  and  the  stars  shone  very 
brightly  in  the  sky  :  the  birds  moreover,  wonderful  to  say, 
fell  down  to  the  ground  in  fright  at  such  startling  dark- 
ness." Kepler  is  responsible  for  the  statement  that  Tycho 
Brahe  did  not  believe  this,  and  wrote  to  Clavius  to  that 
effect  40  years  afterwards. 

In  1 567  there  was  an  annular  eclipse  visible  at  Rome 
on  April  9.  Clavius  says  J  that  "  the  whole  Sun  was  not 
eclipsed  but  that  there  was  left  a  bright  circle  all  round." 
This  in  set  terms  is  a  description  of  an  annular  eclipse, 
but  Johnson  who  calculated  that  at  Rome  the  greatest 
obscuration  took  place  at  2om.  past  noon,  points  out  that 
the  augmentation  of  the  Moon's  semi-diameter  would 
almost  have  produced  totality.  Tycho  tells  us  that  he 
saw  this  eclipse  on  the  shores  of  the  Baltic  when  a  young 
man  about  20  years  of  age. 

The  total  eclipse  of  February  25,  1598,  long  left  a 
special  mark  on  the  memories  of  the  people  of  Scotland. 
The  day  was  spoken  of  as  "  Black  Saturday."  Maclaurin 
states  *  : — "  There  is  a  tradition  that  some  persons  in  the 

*  Astronomic  Pars  Optica,  c.  viii.  sec.  3 ;  Opera  Omnia,  vol.  ii. 
p.  315.     Ed.  Frisch,  1859. 

t  Quoted  by  Kepler,  as  above,  at  p.  315. 

\  Commentarius  in  Sacroboscum,  cap.  iv.;  quoted  in  Kepler's 
Astronomies  Pars  Optica,  c.  viii.  sec.  3 ;  Opera  Omm'a,  vol.  ii.  316. 
Ed.  Frisch,  1859. 

*  Phil.  Trans.,  vol.  xl.  p.  193.    1737. 


MEDIEVAL   ECLIPSES   OF  THE   SUN.  131 

North  lost  their  way  in  the  time  of  this  eclipse,  and  per- 
ished in  the  snow  " — a  statement  which  Hind  discredits. 
The  central  line  passed  from  near  Stranraer,  over  Dalkeith, 
and  therefore  Edinburgh  was  within  the  zone  of  totality. 
Totality  came  on  at  Edinburgh  at  loh.  1501.  and  lasted 
im.  305.  From  the  rapid  motion  of  the  Moon  in  declina- 
tion, the  course  of  the  central  line  was  a  quickly  ascend- 
ing one  in  latitude  on  the  Earth's  surface,  the  totality 
passing  off  within  the  Arctic  circle. 

Kepler  in  his  account  of  the  new  star  in  the  constella- 
tion Ophiuchus  *  refers  to  the  total  eclipse  of  the  Sun  of 
October  12,  1605,  as  having  been  observed  at  Naples,  and 
that  the  "  Red  Flames  "  were  visible  as  a  rim  of  red  light 
round  the  Sun's  disc :  at  least  this  seems  to  be  the  con- 
struction which  may  fairly  be  put  upon  the  Latin  of  the 
original  description. 

The  partial  eclipse  of  the  Sun  of  May  30,  1612,  is  re- 
corded to  have  been  seen  "  through  a  tube."  No  doubt 
this  is  an  allusion  to  the  newly-invented  instrument  which 
we  now  call  the  telescope.  Seemingly  this  is  the  first 
eclipse  of  the  Sun  so  observed,  but  it  is  on  record  that  an 
eclipse  of  the  Moon  had  been  previously  observed  through 
a  telescope.  This  was  the  lunar  eclipse  of  July  6,  1610, 
though  the  observer's  name  has  not  been  handed  down 
to  us. 

The  eclipse  of  April  8,  1652,  is  another  of  those  Scotch 
eclipses,  as  we  may  call  them,  which  left  their  mark  on 
the  people  of  that  country.  Maclaurin  t  speaks  of  it  in 
his  time  (he  died  in  1746)  as  one  of  the  two  central 
eclipses  which  are  "  still  famous  among  the  populace  in 
this  country  "  [Scotland],  and  "  known  amongst  them  by 
the  appellation  of  Mirk  Monday. "  The  central  line  passed 

*  De  Stella  Nova  in  Pede  Serpentarit,  p.  115.     Pragae,  1606. 
t  Phil.  Trans.,  vol.  xl.  p.  193.     1737. 


132  THE   STORY  OF   ECLIPSES. 

over  the  S.E.  of  Ireland,  near  Wexford  and  Wicklow,  and 
reaching  Scotland  near  Burrow  Head  in  Wigtownshire, 
and  passing  not  far  from  Edinburgh,  Montrose  and  Aber- 
deen, quitted  Scotland  at  Peterhead,  Greenock  and  Elgin, 
were  near  the  northern  limit  of  the  zone  of  totality,  and 
the  Cheviots  and  Berwick  upon  the  southern  limit.  The 
eclipse  was  observed  at  Carrickfergus  by  Dr.  Wyberd.* 
Hind  found  that  its  duration  there  was  but  445.  This 
short  duration,  he  suggested,  may  partly  explain  the  curi- 
ous remark  of  Dr.  Wyberd  that  when  the  Sun  was  reduced 
to  "  a  very  slender  crescent  of  light,  the  Moon  all  at  once 
threw  herself  within  the  margin  of  the  solar  disc  with 
such  agility  that  she  seemed  to  revolve  like  an  upper  mill- 
stone, affording  a  pleasant  spectacle  of  rotatory  motion." 
Wyberd's  further  description  clearly  applies  to  the  Corona. 
A  Scotch  account  says  that  "  the  country  people  tilling, 
loosed  their  ploughs.  The  birds  dropped  to  the  ground." 

The  eclipse  of  November  4,  1668,  visible  as  a  partial 
one  in  England,  was  of  no  particular  interest  in  itself,  but 
deserves  notice  as  having  been  observed  by  Flamsteed.t 
who  gives  a  few  diagrams  of  his  observations  at  Derby. 
He  states  that  the  eclipse  came  on  much  earlier  than  had 
been  predicted.  It  was  well  known  at  this  time  that  the 
tables  of  the  Sun  and  Moon  then  in  use  were  very  defec- 
tive, and  it  was  a  recognition  of  this  fact  which  eventually- 
led  to  the  foundation  of  the  Greenwich  Observatory  in  1675. 

On  September  23,  1699,  an  eclipse  of  the  Sun  occurred 
which  was  total  to  the  N.  of  Caithness  for  the  very  brief 
space  of  10—15  secs-  At  Edinburgh,  about  |£ths  of  the 
Sun's  diameter  was  obscured.  In  the  Appendix  to  Pepys's 
Diary  \  there  is  a  letter  from  Dr.  Wallis  mentioning  that 


*  V.  Wing,  Astronomia  Britannica,  p.  355. 

\  Historia  Ccsleslis,  vol.  i.  pp.  7  and  21. 

\Diary  of  Samuel  Pepys,  vol.  vi.  p.  208  ;  Ed.  M.  Bright,  1879. 


MODERN    ECLIPSES   OF  THE   SUN.  133 

his  daughter's  attention  was  called  to  it  by  noticing  "  the 
light  of  the  Sun  look  somewhat  dim  "  at  about  9  a.m., 
whilst  she  was  writing  a  letter,  she  knowing  nothing  of 
the  eclipse.  % 

An  eclipse  of  the  Sun  occurred  on  May  12,  1706,  which 
was  visible  as  a  partial  eclipse  in  England  and  was  total 
on  the  Continent,  especially  in  Switzerland.  A  certain 
Captain  Stannyan  who  made  observations  at  Berne,  writes 
thus  to  Flamsteed  *  : — "  That  the  Sun  was  totally  dark- 
ened there  for  four  and  a  half  minutes  of  time  ;  that  a 
fixed  star  and  a  planet  appeared  very  bright;  and  ,hat 
his  ge  ting  out  of  his  eclips,  was  preceded  by  a  blood-red 
streak  of  light  from  its  left  limb,  i^hich  continued  not 
longer  than  s  x  or  s~ven  seconds  of  time ;  then  part  of 
the  Sun's  disc  appeared  all  of  a  sudden  as  bright  as 
Venus  was  ever  seen  in  the  night ;  nay,  brighter ;  and  in 
that  very  instant  gave  a  light  and  shadow  to  things  as 
strong  as  the  Moon  uses  to  do." 

On  this  communication  Flamsteed  remarks :—"  The 
Captain  is  the  first  man  I  ever  heard  of  that  took  notice 
of  a  red  streak  preceding  the  emersion  of  the  Sun's  body 
from  a  total  eclipse,  and  I  take  notice  of  it  to  you  [the 
Royal  Society],  because  it  infers  that  the  Moon  has  an 
atmosphere ;  and  its  short  continuance,  if  only  six  or 
seven  seconds'  time,  tells  us  that  its  height  was  not  more 
than  five  or  six  hundredths  part  of  her  diameter." 

On  the  whole,  perhaps,  the  most  celebrated  eclipse  of 
the  Sun  ever  recorded  in  England  was  that  of  May  3,  1715. 
The  line  of  totality  passed  right  across  England  from 
Cornwall  to  Norfolk,  and  the  phenomenon  was  carefully 
observed  and  described  by  the  most  experienced  astrono- 
mer of  the  time,  Dr.  Edmund  Halley.  The  line  of  total- 
ity passed  over  London  amongst  other  places,  and  as  the 

*  Phil.  Trans,    vol.  xxv.  p.  2240.     1706. 


134  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

maximum  phase  took  place  soon  after  9  a.m.  on  a  fine 
spring  morning,  the  inhabitants  of  the  Metropolis  saw  a 
sight  which  their  successors  will  not  see  again  till  many 
generations  have  come  and  gone.  Halley  has  left  behind 
him  an  exceedingly  interesting  account  of  this  event,  some 
allusions  to  which  have  already  been  made. 

He  seems  to  to  have  seen  what  we  call  the  Corona,  de- 
scribed by  him  however  as  a  "luminous  ring,"  "of  a  pale 
whiteness,  or  rather  pearl  colour,  a  little  tinged  with  the 
colours  of  the  Iris,  and  concentric  with  the  Moon."  He 
speaks  also  of  a  dusky  but  strong  red  light  which  seemed 
to  colour  the  dark  edge  of  the  Moon  just  before  the  Sun 
emerged  from  totality.  Jupiter,  Mercury,  Venus,  and  the 
stars  Capella  and  Aldebaran  were  seen  in  London,  whilst 
N.  of  London,  more  directly  under  the  central  line,  as 
many  as  twenty  stars  were  seen. 

The  inhabitants  of  England  who  lived  in  the  reign  of 
George  I.  were  singularly  fortunate  in  their  chances  of 
seeing  total  eclipses  of  the  Sun,  for  only  nine  years  after* 
the  one  just  described,  namely,  on  May  22,  1724,  another 
total  eclipse  occurred.  The  central  line  crossed  some  of 
the  southern  countries,  and  the  phenomenon  was  well 
seen  and  reported  on  by  Dr.  Stukeley.f  who  stationed  him- 
self on  Haraden  Hill,  near  Salisbury.  The  Doctor  says 
of  the  darkness  that  he  seemed  to  "  feel  it,  as  it  were,  drop 
upon  us  ...  like  a  great  dark  mantle,"  and  that  during 
the  totality  the  spectacle  presented  to  his  view  "  was  be- 
yond all  that  he  had  ever  seen  or  could  picture  to  his 
imagination  the  most  solemn."  He  could  with  difficulty 
discern  the  faces  of  his  companions  which  had  a  ghastly 
startling  appearance.  When  the  totality  was  ending  there 
appeared  a  small  lucid  spot,  and  from  it  ran  a  rim  of  faint 

*  Being  half  a  Saros  period  (see  p.  19,  ante). 
\  Itinerarium  Curtosum,  2nd  ed.,  vol.  i.  p.  180. 


MODERN    ECLIPSES   OF   THE   SUN.  135 

brightness.  In  about  3^  minutes  from  this  appearance 
the  hill-tops  changed  from  black  to  blue,  the  horizon  gave 
out  the  gray  streaks  previous  to  morning  dawn,  and  the 
birds  sprang  joyously  into  the  air. 

This  eclipse  seems  to  have  had  royal  observers.  It 
was  watched  at  Kensington  apparently  by  the  King  or 
some  of  the  royal  family  of  England,  and  at  Trianon 
(Paris)  by  the  King  of  France,*  under  the  competent 
guidance  of  Maraldi,  Cassini  and  De  Louville.  It  was 
the  last  which  was  visible  as  a  total  one  in  any  part  of 
England. 

On  May  2,  1733,  there  was  an  eclipse  of  the  Sun, 
which  was  total  in  Sweden  and  partial  in  England.  In 
Sweden  the  total  obscuration  lasted  more  than  3  minutes. 
Jupiter,  the  stars  in  Ursa  Major,  Capella,  and  several 
other  stars  were  visible  to  the  naked  eye,  as  also  was  a 
luminous  ring  round  the  Sun.  Three  or  four  spots  of 
reddish  colour  were  also  perceived  near  the  limb  of  the 
Moon,  but  not  in  immediate  contact  with  it.  These  so- 
called  red  "  spots  "  were  doubtless  the  Red  Flames  of  the 
present  century,  and  the  luminous  ring  the  Corona. 

On  March  i,  1737,  a  good  annular  eclipse  was  ob- 
served at  Edinburgh  by  Maclaurin.f  In  his  account  he 
says :— "  A  little  before  the  annulus  was  complete  a  re- 
markable point  or  speck  of  pale  light  appeared  near  the 
middle  of  the  part  of  the  Moon's  circumference  that  was 
not  yet  come  upon  the  disc  of  the  Sun.  .  .  .  During  the 
appearance  of  the  annulus  the  direct  light  of  the  Sun  was 
still  very  considerable,  but  the  places  that  were  shaded 
from  his  light  appeared  gloomy.  There  was  a  dusk  in 
the  atmosphere,  especially  towards  the  N.  and  E.  In 

*  Mem.  de  Mathematique  et  de  Physique  de  /' Acad.  des  Sci- 
ences, 1724,  p.  259. 

\  Phil.  Trans.,  vol.  xl.  pp.  181,  184.     1737. 


!  36  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

those  chambers  which  had  not  their  lights  westwards  the 
obscurity  was  considerable.  Venus  appeared  plainly,  and 
continued  visible  long  after  the  annulus  was  dissolved, 
and  I  am  told  that  other  stars  were  seen  by  some."  Lord 
Aberdour  mentions  a  narrow  streak  of  dusky  red  light  on 
the  dark  edge  of  the  Moon  immediately  before  the  ring 
was  completed,  and  after  it  was  dissolved.  No  doubt 
this  is  a  record  of  the  "  Red  Flames." 

In  1748  .Scotland  was  again  favoured  with  a  central 
eclipse,  but  it  was  only  annular.  The  Earl  of  Morton  * 
and  James  Short,  the  optician,  who  observed  the  phenom- 
enon at  Aberdour  Castle,  10  miles  N.-W.  of  Edinburgh, 
just  outside  the  line  of  annularity,  saw  a  brown  coloured 
light  stretching  along  the  circumference  of  the  Moon  from 
each  of  the  cusps.  A  "  star  "  (probably  the  planet  Venus) 
was  seen  to  the  E.  of  the  Sun. 

The  annular  eclipse  of  April  i,  1764,  visible  as  such 
in  North  Kent,  was  the  subject  of  the  following  quaint 
letter  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Stukeley  :— 

"  To  the  Printer  of  Whitehall  Evening  Post,— 

"  In  regard  to  the  approaching  solar  eclipse  of  Sunday, 
April  i,  I  think  it  advisable  to  remark  that,  it  happening 
in  the  time  of  divine  service,  it  is  desired  you  would  insert 
this  caution  in  your  public  paper.  The  eclipse  begins 
soon  after  9,  the  middle  a  little  before  n,  the  end  a  little 
after  12.  There  will  be  no  total  darkness  in  the  very 
middle,  observable  in  this  metropolis,  but  as  people's  curi- 
ositys  will  not  be  over  with  the  middle  of  the  eclipse,  if 
the  church  service  be  ordered  to  begin  a  little  before  1 2, 
it  will  properly  be  morning  prayer,  and  an  uniformity  pre- 


*  Phil.  Trans.,  vol.  xlv.  p.  586.  1750.  This  is  the  man  who 
under  the  designation  of  "Lord  Aberdour"  observed  the  eclipse 
of  1737  (ante). 


MODERN   ECLIPSES   OF  THE   SUN.  137 

served  in  our  duty  to  the  Supreme  Being,  the  author  of 
these  amazing  celestial  movements.— Yours, 

"  RECTOR  OF  ST.  GEO.,  Q.S."* 

The  year  1766  furnishes  the  somewhat  rare  case  of  a 
total  eclipse  of  the  Sun  observed  on  board  ship  on  the 
high  seas.  The  observers  were  officers  of  the  French 
man-of-war  the  Comte  d'Artots.  Though  the  total  ob- 
scuration lasted  only  53  sees.,  there  was  seen  a  luminous 
ring  about  the  Moon  which  had  four  remarkable  expan- 
sions, situate  at  a  distance  of  90°  from  each  other.f 
These  expansions  are  doubtless  those  rays  which  we  now 
speak  of  as  "  streamers  "  from  the  Corona. 

Curiously  enough  the  next  important  total  eclipse  de- 
serving of  notice  was  also  observed  at  sea.  This  was  the 
eclipse  of  June  24,  1778.  The  observer  was  the  Spanish 
Admiral,  Don  Antonio  Ulloa,  who  was  passing  from  the 
Azores  to  Cape  St.  Vincent.  The  total  obscuration  lasted 
4  minutes.  The  luminous  ring  presented  a  very  beautiful 
appearance  :  out  of  it  there  issued  forth  rays  of  light  which 
reached  to  the  distance  of  a  diameter  of  the  Moon.  Be- 
fore it  became  very  conspicuous  stars  of  the  ist  and  2nd 
magnitudes  were  distinctly  visible,  but  when  it  attained 
its  greatest  brilliancy,  only  stars  of  the  ist  magnitude 
could  be  perceived.  "  The  darkness  was  such  that  per- 
sons who  were  asleep  and  happeired  to  wake,  thought 
that  they  had  slept  the  whole  evening  and  only  waked 
when  the  night  was  pretty  far  advanced.  The  fowls, 
birds,  and  other  animals  on  board  took  their  usual  position 
for  sleeping,  as  if  it  had  been  night."  \ 

*  Rev.  W.  Stukeley,  Rector  of  St.  George's,  Queen's  Square, 
London,  Diary,  vol.  xx.  p.  44,  ed.  "  Surtees  Soc.,"  vol.  Ixxvi.  p.  384. 

t  Le  Gentil,  Voyage  dans  les  Mers  de  i'Jhde,  vol.  ii.  p.  16. 
Paris  1769. 

J  Fhil.  Trans.,  vol.  Ixix.  p.  105.     1779. 


138  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

On  Sept.  5,  1793,  there  happened  an  eclipse  which, 
annular  to  the  N.  of  Scotland,  was  seen  and  observed  in 
England  by  Sir  W.  Herschel  *  as  a  partial  eclipse.  He 
made  some  important  observations  on  the  Moon  on  this 
occasion  measuring  the  height  of  several  of  the  lunar 
mountains.  Considerations  respecting  the  shape  of  one 
of  the  Moon's  horns  led  him  to  form  an  opinion  adverse 
to  the  idea  that  there  the  Moon  had  an  atmosphere. 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

ECLIPSES  OF  THE  SUN   DURING   THE  NINETEENTH 
CENTURY. 

OBSERVATIONS  of  total  solar  eclipses  during  the 
ipth  century  have  been,  for  the  most  part,  carried  on 
under  circumstances  so  essentially  different  from  every- 
thing that  has  gone  before,  that  not  only  does  a  new 
chapter  seem  desirable  but  also  new  form  of  treatment. 
Up  to  the  beginning  of  the  i8th  century  the  observations 
(even  the  best  of  them)  may  be  said  to  have  been  made 
and  recorded  with  but  few  exceptions  by  unskilled  ob- 
servers with  no  clear  ideas  as  to  what  they  should  look 
for  and  what  they  might  expect  to  see.  Things  improved 
a  little  during  the  i8th  century  and  the  observations  by 
Halley,  Maclaurin,  Bradley,  Don  Antonio  Ulloa,  Sir  W. 
Herschel,  and  others  in  particular  rose  to  a  much  higher 
standard  than  any  which  had  preceded  them.  However, 
it  has  only  been  during  the  ipth  cen.tury,  and  especially 
during  the  latter  half  of  it,  that  total  eclipses  of  the  Sun 
have  been  observed  under  circumstances  calculated  to 

*  Phil.  Trans.,  vol.  Ixxxiv.  p.  39.     1794. 


NINETEENTH   CENTURY   ECLIPSES.  139 

extract  from  them  large  and  solid  extensions  of  scientific 
knowledge.  Inasmuch  as  it  has  been  deemed  convenient 
to  sort  out  and  classify  our  knowledge  under  particular 
heads  in  previous  chapters,  I  shall  in  this  chapter  speak 
only  of  the  leading  facts  of  each  eclipse  in  such  an  out- 
line form  as  will  avoid  as  far  as  possible  unnecessary 
repetition. 

In  1806  a  total  eclipse  of  the  Sun  occurred,  visible  in 
N.  America.  Observations  made  in  the  United  States  have 
been  handed  down  to  us.  Don  Joachin  Ferrer,  a  Spanish 
astronomer,  observed  the  eclipse  at  Kinderhook  in  the 
State  of  New  York.  The  totality  lasted  more  than  4$  m. 
—a  somewhat  unusual  length  of  time.  One  or  two  planets 
and  a  few  1st  magnitude  stars  were  seen.  During  the 
totality  there  was  a  slight  fall  of  dew. 

On  Nov.  19,  1816,  there  occurred  the  first  total  eclipse 
of  the  Sun  in  the  i9th  century,  the  central  line  of  which 
passed  over  Europe.  There  is  only  one  known  observa- 
tion of  the  total  phase,  and  this  was  by  Hagen  at  Culm  in 
Bohemia,  but  he  appears  to  have  seen  only  the  beginning 
of  the  totality  and  not  the  whole  of  it. 

A  partial  eclipse  of  the  Sun  visible  as  such  in  England 
but  which  was  annular  in  the  Shetland  Isles  took  place  on 
Sept.  7,  1820.  The  only  reason  why  this  is  worth  men- 
tion is  for  its  political  associations.  The  trial  of  Queen 
Caroline  was  going  on  in  the  House  of  Lords,  and  the 
House  suspended  its  sitting  for  a  short  time  for  the  sake 
of  the  eclipse. 

On  May  15,  1836,  there  occurred  an  annular  eclipse  of 
the  Sun,  which  though  it  was  nowhere  total,  may  be 
looked  upon  as  the  first  of  the  modern  eclipses  the  obser- 
vations of  which  have  taken  such  a  great  development 
during  recent  years.  The  annularity  of  this  eclipse  was 
observed  in  the  N.  of  England  and  in  the  S.  of  Scotland  ; 
and  it  was  at  Jedburgh  in  Roxburghshire  that  Mr.  Francis 


1 40  THE   STORY   OF   ECLIPSES. 

Baily  *  observed  that  feature  of  eclipses  of  the  Sun  now 
universally  known  as  "  Baily's  Beads."  Some  indications 
of  the  Red  Flames  were  also  obtained  at  places  where 
the  eclipse  was  annular. 

Probably  it  was  the  recognition  of  Baily's  Beads  as  a 
regular  concomitant  of  eclipses  of  the  Sun,  which  helped 
to  pave  the  way  for  the  extensive  preparations  made  in 
France,  Italy,  Austria,  and  Russia  for  observing  the  total 
eclipse  of  July  8,  1842.  Many  of  the  most  eminent  as- 
tronomers of  Europe  repaired  to  different  stations  on  the 
central  line  in  order  to  see  the  phenomenon.  Amongst 
these  may  be  named  Arago,  Valz,  Airy,  Carlini,  Santini, 
and  O.  Struve.  The  eclipse  was  witnessed  under  favour- 
able circumstances  at  all  the  various  stations  on  the  cen- 
tral, line  across  Europe,  from  Perpignan  in  France  in  the 
West  to  Lipesk  in  Russia  in  the  East. 

Arago  wrote  t  such  an  exceedingly  graphic  account  of 
this  eclipse  from  what  may  be  termed  the  standpoint  of 
the  general  public,  that  I  will  quote  it  at  some  length,  be- 
cause, with  an  alteration  of  date,  it  might  be  re-written 
and  applied  to  every  total  eclipse  visible  in  much  populated 
tracts  of  country. 

"  At  Perpignan  persons  who  were  seriously  unwell 
alone  remained  within  doors.  As  soon  as  day  began  to 
break  the  population  covered  the  terraces  and  battlements 
of  the  town,  as  well  as  all  the  little  eminences  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood, in  hopes  of  obtaining  a  view  of  the  Sun  as  he 
ascended  above  the  horizon.  At  the  citadel  we  had  under 
our  eyes,  besides  numerous  groups  of  citizens  established 
on  the  slopes,  a  body  of  soldiers  about  to  be  reviewed. 

"The  hour  of  the  commencement  of  the  eclipse  drew 
nigh.  More  than  twenty  thousand  persons,  with  smoked 
glasses  in  their  hands,  were  examining  the  radiant  globe 

*  Memoirs,  R.A.S.,  vol.  x.  p.  5.        f  L'Annuatre,  1846,  p.  303. 


NINETEENTH   CENTURY   ECLIPSES.  141 

projected  upon  an  azure  sky.  Although  armed  with  our 
powerful  telescopes,  we  had  hardly  begun  to  discern  the 
small  notch  on  the  western  limb  of  the  Sun,  when  an  im- 
mense exclamation,  formed  by  the  blending  together  of 
twenty  thousand  different  voices,  announced  to  us  that  we 
had  anticipated  by  only  a  few  seconds  the  observation 
made  with  the  unaided  eye  by  twenty  thousand  astrono- 
mers equipped  for  the  occasion,  whose  first  essay  this  was. 
A  lively  curiosity,  a  spirit  of  emulation,  the  desire  of  not 
being  outdone,  had  the  privilege  of  giving  to  the  natural 
vision  an  unusual  power  of  penetration.  During  the  inter- 
val that  elapsed  between  this  moment  and  the  almost  total 
disappearance  of  the  Sun  we  remarked  nothing  worthy  of 
relation  in  the  countenances  of  so  many  spectators.  But 
when  the  Sun,  reduced  to  a  very  narrow  filament,  began 
to  throw  upon  the  horizon  only  a  very  feeble  light,  a  sort 
of  uneasiness  seized  upon  all ;  every  person  felt  a  desire 
to  communicate  his  impressions  to  those  around  him. 
Hence  arose  a  deep  murmur,  resembling  that  sent  forth 
by  the  distant  ocean  after  a  tempest.  The  hum  of  voices 
increased  in  intensity  as  the  solar  crescent  grew  more  slen- 
der ;  at  length  the  crescent  disappeared,  darkness  suddenly 
succeeded  light,  and  an  absolute  silence  marked  this  phase 
of  the  eclipse  with  as  great  precision  as  did  the  pendulum  of 
our  astronomical  clock.  The  phenomenon  in  its  magnifi- 
cence had  triumphed  over  the  petulance  of  youth,  over  the 
levity  which  certain  persons  assume  as  a  sign  of  superi- 
ority, over  the  noisy  indifference  of  which  soldiers  usually 
make  profession.  A  profound  stillness  also  reigned  in  the 
air;  the  birds  had  ceased  to  sing.  After  an  interval  of 
solemn  expectation,  which  lasted  about  two  minutes,  tran- 
sports of  joy,  shouts  of  enthusiastic  applause,  saluted  with 
the  same  accord,'the  same  spontaneous  feeling,  the  first 
reappearance  of  the  rays  of  the  Sun.  To  a  condition  of 
melancholy  produced  by  sentiments  of  an  indefinable 


142  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

nature  there  succeeded  a  lively  and  intelligible  feeling  of 
satisfaction  which  no  one  sought  to  escape  from  or  mod- 
erate the  impulses  of.  To  the  majority  of  the  public  the 
phenomenon  had  arrived  at  its  term.  The  other  phases 
of  the  eclipse  had  few  attentive  spectators  beyond  the 
persons  devoted  especially  to  astronomical  pursuits." 

The  total  eclipse  of  July  28,  1851,  may  be  said  to  have 
been  the  first  which  was  the  subject  of  an  "  Eclipse  Ex- 
pedition," a  phrase  which  of  late  years  has  become  exceed- 
ingly familiar.  The  total  phase  was  visible  in  Norway 
and  Sweden,  and  great  numbers  of  astronomers  from  all 
parts  of  Europe  flocked  to  those  countries.  Amongst 
those  who  went  from  England  were  Sir  G.  B.  Airy,  the 
Astronomer  Royal  (then  Mr.  Airy),  Mr.  J.  R.  Hind  and 
Mr.  Lassell.  The  Red  Flames  were  very  much  in  evi- 
dence, and  the  fact  that  they  belonged  to  the  Sun  and  not 
to  the  Moon  was  clearly  established.  Hind  mentions  that 
"  the  aspect  of  Nature  during  the  total  eclipse  was  grand 
beyond  description."  This  feature  is  dwelt  upon  with 
more  than  usual  emphasis  in  many  of  the  published  ac- 
counts. I  have  never  seen  it  suggested  that  the  mountain- 
ous character  of  the  country  may  have  had  something  to 
do  with  it,  but  that  idea  would  seem  not  improbable. 

In  the  year  1858,  two  central  eclipses  of  the  Sun  oc- 
curred, both  presenting  some  features  of  interest.  That  of 
March  1 5  was  annular,  the  central  line  passing  across 
England  from  Lyme  Regis  in  Dorsetshire  to  the  Wash, 
traversing  portions  of  Somersetshire,  Wiltshire,  Berkshire, 
Oxfordshire,  Northamptonshire,  Lincolnshire,  and  Norfolk. 
The  weather  generally  was  unfavourable  and  the  annular 
phase  was  only  observed  at  a  few  places,  but  important 
meteorological  observations  were  made  and  yielded  results, 
as  regards  the  diminution  of  temperature,  which  were  very 
definite.  All  over  the  country  rooks  and  pigeons  were 
seen  returning  home  during  the  greatest  obscuration; 


NINETEENTH   CENTURY  ECLIPSES.  143 

starlings  in  many  places  took  flight ;  at  Oxford  a  thrush 
commenced  its  evening  song;  at  Ventnor  a  fish  in  an 
aquarium,  ordinarily  visible  in  the  evening  only,  was  in  full 
activity  about  the  time  of  greatest  gloom  ;  and  generally, 
it  was  noted  that  the  birds  stopped  singing  and  flew  low 
from  bush  to  bush.  The  darkness,  though  nowhere  in- 
tense, was  everywhere  very  appreciable  and  decided. 
The  second  central  eclipse  of  1858  took  place  on  Sep- 
tember 7  and  was  observed  in  Peru  by  Lieutenant 
Gilliss  of  the  U.  S.  Navy.  The  totality  only  lasted  one 
minute,  and  the  general  features  of  a  total  eclipse  do  not 
appear  to  have  been  very  conspicuously  visible.  Gilliss 
remarks*: — "Two  citizens  of  Olmos  stood  within  a  few 
feet  of  me,  watching  in  silence,  and  with  anxious  counte- 
nances, the  rapid  and  fearful  decrease  of  light.  They  were 
wholly  ignorant  that  any  sudden  effect  would  follow  the 
total  obscuration  of  the  Sun.  At  that  instant  one  ex- 
claimed in  terror  'La  Gloria,'  and  both,  I  believe,  fell 
to  their  knees,  filled  with  awe  They  appreciated  the 
resemblance  of  the  Corona  to  the  halos  with  which  the  old 
masters  have  encircled  their  ideals  of  the  heads  of  our 
Saviour  and  the  Madonna,  and  devoutly  regarded  this  as  a 
manifestation  of  the  Divine  Presence." 

The  year  1860  saw  the  departure  from  England  of  the 
first  great  Ship  Expedition  to  see  an  eclipse.  One  was 
due  to  happen  on  July  18,  and  a  large  party  went  out  from 
England  to  Spain  in  H.M.S.  Himalaya.  Mr.  De  La 
Rue  took  a  very  well-equipped  photographic  detachment, 
and  his  photographs  were  eminently  successful.  This 
eclipse  settled  for  ever  the  doubt  as  to  whether  the  Red 
Flames  belonged  to  the  Sun  or  the  Moon,  and  in  favour 
of  the  former  view. 

The  years  1868,  1869,  and  1870  were  each  marked  by 

* Month.  Not.,  R.A.S.,  vol.  xx.  p.  301.     May  1860. 


144  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

total  eclipses,  which  were  observed  to  a  greater  or  less 
extent.  In  the  first-named  year  the  eclipse  occurred  on 
August  1 8,  the  central  line  passing  across  India.  The 
weather  was  not  everywhere  favourable,  but  several  ex- 
peditions were  dispatched  to  the  East  Indies.  The  spec- 
troscope was  largely  brought  into  play  with  the  immedi- 
ate result  of  showing  that  the  Corona  was  to  be  deemed 
a  sort  of  atmosphere  of  the  Sun,  not  self-luminous,  but 
shining  by  reflected  light.  The  eclipse  of  1869  was  ob- 
served by  several  well-equipped  parties  in  the  United 
States,  and  a  very  complete  series  of  excellent  photo- 
graphs was  obtained. 

To  view  the  eclipse  of  December  22,  1870,  several  ex- 
peditions were  dispatched,  the  central  line  passing  over 
some  very  accessible  places  in  Spain,  Sicily,  and  North 
Africa.  The  English  observers  went  chiefly  in  H  M.S. 
Urgent,  though  some  of  them  travelled  overland  to  Sicily. 
The  expenses,  both  of  the  sea  and  land  parties,  were  to  a 
large  extent  defrayed  by  Her  Majesty's  Government.  It 
deserves  to  be  noted  that  so  great  was  the  anxiety  of  the 
French  astronomer  Janssen  to  see  this  eclipse,  that  he 
determined  to  try  and  escape  in  a  balloon  from  Paris  (then 
besieged  by  the  Germans)  and  succeeded,  carrying  his 
instruments  with  him.  The  weather  seriously  interfered 
with  the  work  of  all  the  observers  who  went  out  to  see 
this  eclipse,  which  was  the  more  to  be  regretted  because  the 
preparations  had  been  on  a  very  extensive  and  costly  scale. 
The  chief  result  was  that  it  was  ascertained  that  the  Red 
Flames  (henceforward  generally  called  "  Prominences ") 
are  composed  of  hydrogen  gas  in  an  incandescent  state. 

The  year  1871  saw,  on  December  12,  another  Indian 
eclipse,  noteworthy  for  the  numerous  and  excellent  photo- 
graphs which  were  obtained  of  the  Corona,  of  the  rifts  in 
it,  and  of  the  general  details,  which  were  well  recorded  on 
the  plates. 


NINETEENTH  CENTURY  ECLIPSES.  145 

There  was  an  eclipse  visible  in  South  Africa  on  April 
1 6,  1874.  Some  useful  naked  eye  views  were  obtained 
and  recorded,  but  as  no  photographic  work  was  done, 
this  eclipse  cannot  be  said  to  come  into  line  with  those 
which  preceded  or  followed  it. 

In  the  following  year,  that  is  to  say  on  April  6,  1875, 
there  was  a  total  eclipse  of  the  Sun,  visible  in  the  far  East, 
especially  Siam  ;  but  the  distance  from  England,  coupled 
with  the  very  generally  unfavourable  weather,  prevented 
this  from  being  anything  more  than  a  second-class  total 
eclipse,  so  to  speak,  although  extensive  preparations  had 
been  made,  and  the  sum  of  ^1000  had  been  granted  by 
the  British  Government  towards  the  expenses.  A  certain 
number  of  photographs  were  obtained,  but  none  of  any 
very  great  value. 

Perhaps  of  the  next  eclipse  which  we  have  to  consider, 
it  may  be  said  that  the  circumstances  were  more  varied 
than  those  of  any  other  during  the  second  half  of  the  igth 
century.  The  eclipse  in  question  occurred  on  July  29, 
1878. 

Several  favourable  circumstances  occurred  to  make  it 
a  notable  event.  In  the  first  place,  the  central  line  passed 
entirely  across  the  United  States ;  in  other  words,  across 
a  long  stretch  of  inhabited  and  civilised  territory,  acces- 
sible from  both  sides  to  a  nation  well  provided  with  the 
requisite  scientific  skill  and  material  resources  of  every 
kind.  But  there  was  another  special  and  rare  facility 
available  ;  the  central  line  crossed  the  chain  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  an  elevated  locality,  which  an  American  writer 
speaks  of  as  overhung  by  "  skies  of  such  limpid  clearness, 
that  on  several  evenings  Jupiter's  satellites  were  seen 
with  the  naked  eye."  On  the  summit  of  a  certain  peak, 
known  as  Pike's  Peak,  a  party  of  skilled  observers,  headed 
by  Professor  Langley,  observed  the  wonderful  develop- 
ments of  the  Corona,  mentioned  on  a  previous  page.  The 


146  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

tact  that  such  a  display  came  under  the  eyes  of  man  was 
no  doubt  mainly  due  to  the  superbly  clear  atmosphere 
through  which  the  observations  were  made.  That  this 
is  not  a  mere  supposition  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact 
that  at  the  lower  elevation  of  only  8000  feet,  instead  of 
14,000  feet,  the  Coronal  streamers  were  seen  by  Professor 
Newcomb's  party,  far  Jess  extended  than  Langley  saw 
them.  Perhaps  the  best  proof  of  the  importance  of  a  di- 
aphanous sky  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  on  the  summit 
of  Pike's  Peak,  the  Corona  remained  visible  for  fully  4 
minutes  after  the  total  phase  had  come  to  an  end.  A 
comparison  of  the  descriptions  shows  that  even  at  the 
elevation  of  10,200  ft.  the  observers  placed  there,  whilst 
they  were  better  off  than  those  at  8000  ft.,  assuredly  did 
not  see  so  much  or  so  well  as  those  at  14,000  ft. 

There  occurred  a  total  eclipse  on  July  II,  1880,  visible 
in  California,  but  as  the  totality  lasted  only  32  sees,  and 
the  Sun's  elevation  was  only  u',  not  much  was  got  out 
of  this  eclipse  notwithstanding  that  it  was  observed  in  a 
cloudless  sky  at  a  station  6000  ft.  above  the  sea. 

The  eclipse  of  May  17,  1882,  yielded  several  interest- 
ing and  important  features  although  the  totality  was  short 
—  only  about  ij  minutes.  Here  again  favourable  local 
circumstances  helped  astronomers  in  more  ways  than  one. 
It  was  in  Egypt  that  the  eclipse  was  visible,  and  Egypt  is 
a  country  which  it  is  exceedingly  easy  for  travellers  to 
reach,  and  it  is  also  noted  for  its  clear  skies.  These  were 
doubtless  two  of  the  reasons  which  combined  to  inspire 
the  elaborate  preparations  which  were  made  for  photo- 
graphic and  specrroscopic  observations.  The  former  re- 
sulted in  a  very  unprecedented  success.  One  of  Dr. 
Schuster's  photographs  of  the  totality  showed  not  only 
the  expected  Corona,  but  an  unexpected  comet. 

Though  on  more  than  one  previous  occasion  in  history 
the  darkness  which  is  a  special  accompaniment  of  a  total 


NINETEENTH   CENTURY  ECLIPSES.  147 

eclipse  had  caused  a  comet  to  be  seen,  yet  the  1882  eclipse 
was  the  first  at  which  a  comet  had  thrust  itself  upon  the 
notice  of  astronomers  by  means  of  a  photographic  plate. 
It  will  be  remembered  that  the  political  circumstances  of 
Egypt  in  1882  were  of  a  somewhat  strained  character  and 
probably  this  contributed  to  the  development  of  an  un- 
usual amount  of  astronomical  competition  in  connection 
with  this  eclipse.  Not  only  did  the  Egyptian  Govern- 
ment grant  special  facilities,  but  strong  parties  went  out 
representing  England,  France,  and  Italy,  although  not 
perhaps  in  set  terms  at  the  direct  instigation  of  their  re- 
spective Governments. 

The  next  eclipse,  that  of  May  6,  1883,  had  some  dra- 
matic features  about  it.  To  begin  with  its  duration  was 
unusually  long— nearly  5!  minutes,  and  Mrs.  Todd  in  her 
genial  American  style  remarks : — "  After  the  frequent 
manner  of  its  kind,  the  path  lay  where  it  would  be  least 
useful — across  the  wind-swept  wastes  of  the  Pacific.  But 
fortunately  one  of  a  small  group  of  coral  islands  lay  quite 
in  its  line,  and,  nothing  daunted,  the  brave  scientific  men 
set  their  faces  toward  this  friendly  cluster,  in  cheerful  faith 
that  they  could  locate  there.  Directed  to  take  up  their 
abode  somewhere  on  a  diminutive  island  about  which 
nothing  could  be  ascertained  beforehand,  save  the  bare 
fact  of  its  existence  at  a  known  spot  in  mid-ocean,  the 
American  observers  were  absent  from  the  United  States 
more  than  three  months,  most  of  which  time  was  spent  in 
travelling,  1 5,000  miles  in  all,  with  ten  full  weeks  at  sea. 
Their  tiny  foothold  in  the  Pacific  was  Caroline  Island,  a 
coral  atoll  on  the  outskirts  of  the  Marquesas  group." 

In  spite  of  the  unattractive,  not  to  say  forbidding, 
character  of  the  place  to  which  they  would  have  to  go, 
parties  of  astronomers  went  out  from  England,  France, 
Austria,  and  Italy,  and  although  rain  fell  on  the  morning 
of  the  day  the  sky  became  quite  clear  by  the  time  of 


148  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

totality  and  the  observations  were  completely  successful. 
One  of  the  pictures  of  the  Corona  obtained  by  Trouvelot, 
an  observer  of  French  descent,  but  belonging  to  the 
American  party,  has  been  often  reproduced  in  books  and 
exhibited  the  Corona  in  a  striking  form.  How  few  were 
the  attractions  of  Caroline  Island  as  an  eclipse  station  may 
be  judged  from  the  fact  that  the  inhabitants  consisted  of 
only  four  native  men,  one  woman,  and  two  children  who 
lived  in  three  houses  and  two  sheds. 

On  September  8,  1885,  there  occurred  a  total  eclipse, 
which  was  seen  as  such  in  New  Zealand,  but  the  observa- 
tions were  few,  and  with  one  exception,  unimportant  and 
uninteresting.  A  certain  Mr.  Graydon,  however,  made  a 
sketch  which  showed  at  one  point  a  complete  break  in  the 
Corona,  so  that  from  the  very  edge  of  the  Moon  outwards 
into  space  there  was  a  long  and  narrow  black  space  show- 
ing nothing  but  a  vacuity.  If  this  was  really  the  condition 
of  things,  such  a  break  in  the  Corona  is  apparently  quite 
unprecedented. 

In  1886,  on  August  29,  there  occurred  a  total  eclipse, 
visible  in  the  West  Indies,  which  yielded  various  important 
results.  It  was  unfortunate  that  for  the  greater  part  of 
its  length,  the  zone  of  totality  covered  ocean  and  not  land, 
the  only  land  being  the  Island  of  Grenada  and  some  ad- 
jacent parts  of  South  America.  The  resulting  restriction 
as  regards  choice  of  observing  stations  was  the  more  to 
be  regretted  because  the  duration  of  the  totality  was  so 
unusually  long,  and  therefore  favourable,  being  more  than 
6£  minutes  in  the  middle  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  Parties 
of  English,  American,  and  Italian  astronomers  assembled, 
however,  at  Grenada,  and  though  the  weather  was  not 
the  best  possible,  some  interesting  photographs  were  ob- 
tained which  exhibited  an  unusual  development  of  hydro- 
gen protuberances.  The  central  line  in  this  eclipse  not 
only  stretched  right  across  the  Atlantic,  but  entered  Africa 


NINETEENTH   CENTURY  ECLIPSES.  149 

on  the  West  Coast  where  a  missionary  saw  the  eclipse  as 
a  mere  spectator,  and  afterwards  expressed  his  regret  that 
no  astronomers  were  within  reach  with  instruments  to 
record  the  remarkable  Corona  which  was  displayed  to  his 
gaze. 

Though  the  unusual  opportunities  which,  so  far  as  the 
Sun  and  the  Moon  were  concerned,  were  afforded  by  the 
eclipse  of  1886  were  lost,  astronomers  looked  out  hope- 
fully for  August  19,  1887,  when  another  eclipse  was  due 
to  happen  which,  weather  permitting,  would  be  observa- 
ble over  a  very  long  stretch  of  land,  from  Berlin  through 
Russia  and  Siberia  to  Japan.  Unusually  extensive  prep- 
arations were  made  in  Russia  at  one  end  and  in  Japan  at 
the  other,  but  clouds  prevailed  very  generally,  and  the 
pictures  of  the  Corona  which  were  obtained  fell  far  short 
in  number  and  quality  from  what  had  been  hoped  for, 
having  regard  to  the  number  and  importance  of  the  sta- 
tions chosen,  and  of  the  astronomers  who  made  their 
preparations  thereat.  An  enthusiastic  Russian,  in  the 
hopes  of  emancipating  himself  from  the  risks  of  terrestrial 
weather  at  the  Earth's  surface,  went  up  in  a  balloon  to  an 
elevation  of  more  than  two  miles.  His  enthusiasm  was 
so  far  rewarded  that  he  had  a  very  clear  view  of  a  mag- 
nificent Corona ;  but  as,  owing  to  some  mischance,  the 
balloon  rose,  conveying  only  the  astronomer  and  leaving 
behind  his  assistant  who  was  to  have  managed  the  bal- 
loon, all  his  time  was  engrossed  by  the  management  of 
the  balloon,  and  he  could  do  very  little  in  the  way  of 
purely  astronomical  work. 

The  year  1889  afforded  two  total  eclipses  of  the  Sun 
for  which  the  usual  preparations  were  made.  The  first 
occurred  on  New  Year's  Day,  and  the  path  of  the  shadow 
crossed  the  North  American  Continent  from  California 
to  Manitoba.  The  weather  was  nearly  everywhere  very 
favourable,  and  an  enormous  number  of  observers  and  in- 


150  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

struments  were  assembled  along  the  central  line.  The 
consequence  was  that  a  very  large  number  of  photographs 
were  obtained.  It  may  be  said  generally  of  this  eclipse, 
that  as  it  coincided  with  a  Sun-spot  minimum,  it  left  us 
in  a  position  to  learn  very  distinctly  what  are  the  charac- 
teristic features  of  a  solar  Corona  at  a  period  which  is  one 
of  rest  and  repose  on  the  Sun,  at  least,  so  far  as  regards 
visible  Sun-spots. 

The  second  eclipse  of  1889  occurred  on  December  22, 
and  should  have  been  visible  off  the  northern  coast  of 
South  America  and  on  the  West  Coast  of  Africa.  At- 
tempts were  made  to  utilise  the  South  American  chances 
by  English  and  American  parties,  whilst  a  small  expedi- 
tion comprising  astronomers  of  both  nations  went  to  Cape 
Ledo  in  West  Africa.  The  African  efforts  failed  entirely 
owing  to  clouds,  but  the  South  American  parties  at 
Cayenne  were  successful.  One  very  deplorable  result, 
however,  arising  out  of  the  expedition  to  Cayenne  was 
the  illness  and  subsequent  death  of  the  Rev.  S.  J.  Perry, 
S.  J.,  who  was  struck  down  by  malaria  and  died  at  sea  on 
the  return  journey.  None  who  knew  Mr  Perry  person- 
ally could  fail  to  realise  what  a  loss  he  was  both  to  astron- 
omy generally  and  to  his  own  circle  of  friends  particularly. 

On  April  16,  1893,  there  happened  a  total  eclipse  of 
the  Sun,  which  was  successfully  watched  by  a  large  num- 
ber of  skilled  observers  throughout  its  entire  length.  In- 
deed it  is  believed  that  only  one  party  was  unsuccessful. 
The  line  of  totality  started  on  the  coast  of  Chili,  passed 
over  the  highlands  of  that  country,  across  the  borders  of 
Argentina  and  Paraguay,  and  over  the  vast  plains  and 
forests  of  Central  Brazil,  emerging  at  about  noon  of  local 
time  at  a  short  distance  to  the  N.-W.  of  Ceara  on  the 
North  Atlantic  seaboard.  Crossing  the  Atlantic  nearly 
at  its  narrowest  part,  it  struck  the  coast  of  Africa  N.  of 
the  river  Gambia,  and  finally  disappeared  somewhere  in 


NINETEENTH   CENTURY  ECLIPSES.  151 

the  Sahara.  The  South  American  observations  were  the 
most  extensive  and  successful,  the  latter  fact  being  due  to 
the  circumstance  that  the  sky  at  many  of  the  principal 
stations  was  pre-eminently  favourable,  owing  to  the  clear- 
ness and  dryness  of  the  atmosphere. 

On  Sept.  29,  1894,  there  was  a  total  eclipse  of  the  Sun, 
but  as  its  duration  was  brief  and  the  zone  of  totality  lay 
chiefly  over  the  Indian  Ocean,  practically  nothing  came  of  it. 

Things  seemed,  however,  much  more  promising  for 
the  total  eclipse  of  Aug.  9,  1896,  and  a  very  large  number 
of  observers  went  out  to  the  North  of  Norway  hoping  to 
catch  the  shadow  at  its  European  end,  whilst  a  yacht 
party  went  to  Nova  Zembla  in  the  Arctic  Ocean,  and  a 
few  observers  travelled  as  far  as  Japan.  So  far  as  the 
very  large  number  of  would-be  observers  who  went  from 
England  to  Norway  were  concerned,  the  eclipse  was  a 
profound  disappointment,  for  owing  to  bad  weather  prac- 
tically nothing  was  seen  in  Norway,  except  on  the  West 
coast  near  Bodo,  where  the  weather  was  beautifully  fine, 
but  where  no  adequate  preparations  had  been  made,  be- 
cause nobody  believed  that  the  coast  would  be  free  from 
fog.  Exceptionally  fine  weather  prevailed  at  Nova  Zem- 
bla, and  the  small  but  select  party  who  were  kindly  taken 
there  by  the  late  Sir  G.  B.  Powell,  M.P.,  in  his  yacht,  were 
very  fortunate,  and  an  excellent  series  of  photographs  was 
secured.  One  important  result  obtained  at  Nova  Zembla 
was  a  full  confirmation  by  Mr.  Shackleton  of  Prof.  Young's 
discovery  in  1870  of  the  "  Reversing  Layer,"  a  discovery 
which  was  long  and  vehemently  disputed  by  Sir  Norman 
Lockyer.  Fairly  successful  observations  were  made  of 
this  eclipse  in  Siberia  and  Japan. 

The  last  total  eclipse  of  the  Sun  which  has  to  be 
noticed  as  an  accomplished  fact  was  the  "  Indian  Eclipse  " 
of  Jan.  22,  1898,  which  was  very  successfully  seen  by 
large  numbers  of  people  who  went  to  India  from  all  parts 


152  THE   STORY   OF   ECLIPSES. 

of  the  world.  As  usual  in  all  total  eclipses  of  the  Sun 
nowadays,  the  photographers  were  very  much  to  the  front, 
and  the  photographs  of  the  inner  Corona,  taken  by  the  As- 
tronomer Royal,  are  thought  to  have  been  probably  the 
best  that  have  yet  been  done.  Amongst  the  miscellane- 
ous observations  made,  it  may  be  mentioned  that  more 
stars  were  seen  during  the  second  partial  phases  than 
during  totality  (a  circumstance  which  had  been  noticed  by 
Don  A.  Ulloa  as  far  back  as  1778).  It  is  stated  also  that 
a  mysterious  object  was  seen  between  Mars  and  Venus 
by  two  officers  of  H.M.S.  Melpomene,  which  was  not 
put  down  on  the  published  chart  as  a  star  to  be  looked 
for.  The  identity  of  this  object  has  not  been  ascertained. 


CHAPTER   XIV. 

THE  ELECTRIC  TELEGRAPH    AS  APPLIED   TO   ECLIPSES 
OF  THE  SUN. 

AMONGST  the  auxiliary  agencies  which  have  been 
brought  into  use  in  recent  years,  to  enable  astronomers 
the  better  to  carry  out  systematic  observations  of  eclipses 
of  the  Sun,  the  electric  telegraph  occupies  a  place  which 
may  hereafter  become  prominent.  As  it  is  not  likely  that 
this  little  book  will  fall  into  the  hands  of  any  persons  who 
would  be  able  to  make  much  use  of  telegraphy  in  connec- 
tion with  eclipse  observations,  it  will  not  be  necessary  to 
give  much  space  to  the  matter,  but  a  few  outlines  will 
certainly  be  interesting.  When  the  idea  of  utilising  the 
telegraph  wire  first  came  into  men's  minds,  it  was  with 
the  object  of  enabling  observers  who  saw  the  commence- 
ment of  an  eclipse  at  one  end  of  the  line  of  totality,  to  give 
cautionary  notices  to  observers  farther  on,  or  towards  the 
far  end,  of  special  points  which  had  been  seen  at  the 


THE  ELECTRIC  TELEGRAPH.  153 

beginning  of  the  totality,  and  as  to  which  confirmatory 
observations,  at  a  later  hour,  were  evidently  very  desirable. 
It  is  obvious  that  a  scheme  of  this  kind  depends  for  its 
success  upon  each  end  (or  something  like  it)  of  the  line  of 
totality  being  in  telegraphic  communication  with  the  other 
end,  and  this  involves  a  combination  of  favourable  circum- 
stances not  likely  to  exist  at  every  occurrence  of  a  total 
eclipse,  and  in  general  only  likely  to  prevail  in  the  case  of 
eclipses  visible  over  inhabited  territory,  such  as  the  two 
Americas,  Europe,  and  parts  of  Asia.  This  use  of  the 
telegraph  was,  I  think,  first  proposed  as  far  back  as  1878, 
by  an  American  astronomer,  in  connection  with  the  total 
eclipse  of  that  year.  His  proposal  fell  upon  sympathetic 
ears,  with  the  result  that  arrangements  were  concluded 
with  the  Western  Union  Telegraph  Company  of  North 
America  for  the  expeditious  forwarding  of  messages  from 
northern  stations  on  the  eclipse  line  to  southern  stations. 
Some  attention  was  being  given  at  that  time  to  the 
question  of  Intra-Mercurial  planets,  and  it  was  thought 
that  if  by  good  fortune  any  such  objects  were  unexpected- 
ly found  at  the  northern  station,  and  observers  at  a  south- 
ern station  could  be  advised  of  the  fact,  there  might  be  a 
better  chance  of  procuring  an  accurate  and  precise  record 
of  the  discovery.  As  it  happened,  nothing  came  of  it  on 
that  occasion,  but  the  idea  of  untilising  the  telegraph 
having  once  taken  possession  of  men's  minds,  it  was  soon 
seen  what  important  possibilities  were  opened  up. 

The  want  of  telegraph  organisation  curiously  made 
itself  felt  in  the  Egyptian  eclipse  of  1882.  It  is  stated  in 
another  chapter  of  this  work  that  during  the  total  phase 
a  comet  was  unexpectedly  discovered.  Now  comets 
sometimes  move  very  rapidly  (especially  when  they  are 
near  the  Sun),  and  had  it  been  possible  to  have  warned 
some  observer  to  the  E.  of  Egypt  to  look  out  for  this 
comet,  and  had  he  seen  it  even  only  a  couple  of  hours 


154  THE  STORY  OF   ECLIPSES. 

after  it  had  been  found  in  Egypt,  some  data  respecting  its 
position  might  have  been  obtained  which  would  have  per- 
mitted a  rough  estimate  being  formed  of  its  movement 
through  the  heavens.  Such  an  estimate  might  have  en- 
abled astronomers  to  have  hunted  up  the  comet  at  sun- 
set or  sunrise  on  the  days  immediately  following  the 
eclipse.  As  it  happened,  however,  the  comet  was  not 
seen  again  in  1882,  and,  so  far  as  we  know,  may  never  be 
seen  again. 

It  was  not  till  1889  that  a  complete  organisation  of  a 
telegraph  service  in  connection  with  an  eclipse  was  accom- 
plished. The  eclipse  of  January  i  of  that  year  began  in 
the  Pacific  and  the  line  of  totality  touched  land  in  Califor- 
nia, passing  across  North  America  to  Manitoba.  The 
first  Californian  station  was  at  Willows,  and  was  occupied 
by  a  party  from  Harvard  College  Observatory,  who  were 
supplied  with  an  unusually  complete  equipment  of  photo- 
graphic apparatus,  together  with  a  large  camera  for  chart- 
ing all  the  stars  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Sun,  so  as  to 
detect  an  Intra-Mercurial  planet  if  one  existed.  The  tele- 
graph scheme  which  had  to  be  worked  out  was  somewhat 
complicated,  and  one  of  the  chief  actors  in  the  scene  has 
furnished  a  fairly  full  account  of  what  was  done.  First 
of  all,  a  complete  list  of  the  instruments  and  of  the  work 
proposed  to  be  done  by  them  had  to  be  prepared.  The 
weather  probabilities  being  everywhere  very  unsatisfac- 
tory, there  was  a  possibility  of  all  degrees  of  success  or 
failure,  and  one  thing  which  had  to  be  prearranged  for 
each  station  was  a  cypher  code  which  should  be  available 
for  all  the  likely  combinations  of  instruments,  weather  and 
results.  It  was  found  that  about  one  hundred  words 
would  suffice  for  the  necessary  code,  including  words 
which  would  indicate  in  a  sufficiently  precise  manner  the 
position  of  any  new  planet  which  a  photograph  might  dis- 
close. 


THE   ELECTRIC   TELEGRAPH. 


155 


The  following,  being  a  part  of  the  code  prescribed  for 
use  at  Willows,  will  serve  to  indicate  the  nature  of  the 
whole  scheme : — 

Africa,  Perfectly  clear  throughout  the  whole  eclipse. 

Alaska,  Perfectly  clear  during  totality. 

Belgium,  Clear  sky  for  the  partial  phases,  but  cloudy  for  totality. 

Bolivia,  Entirely  cloudy  throughout  the  whole  eclipse. 

Brazil,  Observed  all  the  contacts. 

Bremen,  Observed  three  of  the  contacts. 

Ceylon,  Made  observations  on  the  shadow-bands. 

Chili,  Observed  lines  of  the  reversing  layer  visually. 

China,  The  Corona  showed  great  detail. 

Cork,  Obtained  40-50  negatives  during  totality. 

Corsica,  Obtained  50-60  negatives  during  totality. 

Crimea,  Obtained  60-70  negatives  during  totality. 

Cuba,  Observed  a  comet. 

Upwards  of  twenty  codes  were  prepared  for  the  like 
number  of  stations,  and  the  observers  were  to  report  their 
results  at  the  earliest  possible  moment.  On  a  rehearsal 
of  the  programme  the  thought  occurred  that  the  sending 
and  reception  of  so  many  cypher  messages  in  the  ordi- 
nary course  of  business  might  lead  to  delays  which  would 
be  productive  of  serious  inconvenience,  and  that  the  suc- 
cess of  the  whole  scheme  could  be  only  well  assured  if 
a  special  wire,  in  direct  circuit  from  New  York  to  the 
eclipse  stations  in  turn,  could  be  dedicated  to  the  work. 
Thanks  to  the  liberality  of  the  Western  Union  Telegraph 
Company  this  privilege  was  secured,  and  a  branch  wire 
was  led  across  from  the  Company's  New  York  office  to 
the  office  of  the  New  York  Herald,  'which  journal  had 
undertaken  to  be  responsible  for  the  non-astronomical 
part  of  the  business. 

Mrs.  Todd  gives  the  following  account  of  the  final 
arrangements,  and  of  how  they  began  to  work  when  the 
moment  for  action  arrived  : — "  From  San  Francisco  every 
California  observer  was  within  easy  telegraphic  reach,  and 


156  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

the  wire  thus  extended  by  direct  circuit  to  each  eclipse 
station  in  turn.  From  the  editorial  rooms  of  the  Herald 
Professor  Todd  was  in  immediate  communication  with 
any  observers  whom  he  chose  to  call.  As  previously  in- 
timated, arrangements  had  been  made  with  the  Harvard 
astronomers  at  Willows  to  receive  their  message  first  and 
with  the  utmost  despatch,  in  order  to  test  the  feasibility 
of  outstripping  the  Moon.  Shortly  before  5  o'clock  in 
the  afternoon  despatches  began  to  come  in.  Of  course 
a  slight  delay  was  unavoidable,  as  the  observers  at  the 
various  stations  were  some  rods  distant  from  the  local 
telegraph  offices,  and  it  would  take  a  few  minutes  after 
the  eclipse  was  over  to  prepare  the  suitable  message  from 
the  cypher  code.  On  the  astronomer's  table  in  the  Herald 
office  were  a  large  map  and  a  chronometer.  The  latter 
indicated  exact  Greenwich  time,  and  the  former  showed 
the  correct  position  of  the  Moon's  shadow  at  the  begin- 
ning of  every  minute  by  the  chronometer.  In  this  way  it 
was  possible  to  follow  readily  the  precise  phase  of  the 
eclipse  at  every  station.  About  the  rooms  and  accessible 
for  immediate  use  were  arranged  the  cypher  codes  per- 
taining to  the  several  stations  and  other  papers  necessary 
in  preparing  the  reports  for  the  press.  Everything  being, 
as  was  supposed,  in  working  order,  New  York  about  a 
quarter  of  an  hour  before  totality  commenced  inquired  of 
Willows  the  state  of  the  weather.  The  answer  was  that 
the  sky  was  getting  dark,  and  that  there  were  no  clouds 
anywhere  near  the  Sun.  At  that  time  the  Moon's  shad- 
ow was  travelling  across  the  open  waters  of  the  Pacific. 
It  rapidly  rushed  along ;  totality  came  and  went  at  Wil- 
lows ;  a  two  minutes'  glimpse  of  the  Corona  was  had, 
and  the  Corona  swept  rapidly  eastwards.  After  a  brief 
interval  Professor  Pickering  sent  off  from  Willows  a  tele- 
gram which  began — '  Alaska,  China,  Corsica,'  and  then 
the  connection  failed.  The  break  was  located  somewhere 


THE  ELECTRIC  TELEGRAPH.  157 

between  California  and  Utah,  and  more  than  half  an  hour 
elapsed  ere  the  circuit  was  re-established,  and  the  rest  of 
the  message  received."  The  remainder  of  the  thrilling  in- 
cidents of  that  eventful  day  cannot  possibly  be  better  told 
than  in  Mrs.  Todd's  crisp  and  striking  language  *  : — 

"  During  this  interval  the  lunar  shadow,  advancing  over 
Montana  and  Dakota,  had  left  the  Earth  entirely,  sweep- 
ing off  again  into  space.  Still,  however,  the  prospect  that 
the  telrgraph  might  win  the  race  was  hopeful.  Had  New 
York  been  located  in  the  eclipse  path  as  well  as  Willows, 
with  both  stations  symmetrically  placed,  the  total  eclipse 
would  have  become  visible  at  New  York  about  an  hour 
and  a  quarter  after  the  shadow  had  left  California.  Thus 
there  was  time  to  spare.  Having  recovered  the  wire, 
Professor  Pickering's  message  was  completed  at  loh.  36m. 
[G.M.T.],  the  cypher  translated,  and  the  stenographer's 
notes  were  written  out  and  despatched  to  the  composing- 
room  six  minutes  later.  The  '  copy  '  was  quickly  put  in 
type,  and  the  hurried  proof  handed  to  Professor  Todd  at 
xoh.  5001.,  exactly  an  hour  of  absolute  time  after  the 
observations  were  concluded.  Had  the  Moon's  shadow 
been  advancing  from  California  toward  New  York,  there 
was  still  a  margin  of  several  minutes  before  the  eclipse 
could  become  total  at  the  latter  place.  In  point  of  fact, 
while  the  proof  sheet  of  the  first  message  was  being  read, 
the  lunar  shadow  would  have  been  loitering  among  the 
Alleghanies.  Man's  messenger  had  thus  outrun  the  Moon. 
The  telegraphic  reports  of  the  other  astronomers  were 
gradually  gathered  and  put  in  type,  and  the  forms  of  the 
Herald  were  ready  for  the  stereotyper  at  the  proper  time, 

*  There  is  a  want  of  uniformity  in  Mrs.  Todd's  references  to 
times  which  1  have  not  thought  it  necessary  to  put  straight. 
"Greenwich  Mean  Time,"  "Eastern  U.S.  Standard  Time,"  and 
"  Pacific  Time,"  are  all  severally  quoted  in  happy-go-lucky  con- 
fusion. 


158  THE   STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

some  two  hours  after  midnight.  At  3  o'clock  a.  m.  the 
European  mails  closed,  and  the  pouches  put  on  board  the 
steamship  Alter  carried  the  usual  copies  for  the  foreign 
circulation.  Within  twenty-four  hours  after  the  observa- 
tions of  the  eclipse  were  made  near  the  Pacific  Coast,  the 
results  had  been  telegraphed  to  the  Atlantic  seaboard, 
collected  and  printed,  and  the  papers  were  well  out  on 
their  journey  to  European  readers." 

The  foregoing  narrative  will  make  amply  clear  the 
future  possibilities  of  telegraphy  as  a  coadjutor  of  Astron- 
omy in  observations  of  total  eclipses  of  the  Sun.  In  the 
total  eclipse  of  May  28,  1900,  a  most  excellent  opportunity 
was  afforded  for  again  putting  to  the  test  the  excellent 
ideas  which  were  worked  out  so  successfully  in  1889. 
The  zone  of  totality  in  that  eclipse  passed  through  many 
of  the  more  or  less  densely  populated  States  of  the  United 
States,  and  then  through  Portugal,  Spain,  and  Algiers. 
The  principal  observing  station  in  the  United  States  was 
at  Wadesboro,  N.  C.,  and  here  and  at  the  European  sta- 
tions every  facility  was  offered  the  observers. 


CHAPTER   XV. 

ECLIPSES  OF  THE   MOON— GENERAL   PRINCIPLES. 

IN  dealing  with  eclipses  generally,  but  with  more  es- 
pecial reference  to  eclipses  of  the  Sun,  in  a  previous  chap- 
ter, it  was  unavoidable  to  mix  up  in  some  degree  eclipses 
of  the  Moon  with  those  of  the  Sun.  There  are,  however, 
distinctions  between  the  two  phenomena  which  make  it 
convenient  to  separate  them  as  much  as  possible.  Eclipses 
of  the  Moon  are,  like  those  of  the  Sun,  divisible  into 
"  partial  "  and  "  total  "  eclipses,  but  those  words  have  a 
different  application  in  regard  to  eclipses  of  the  Moon 


ECLIPSES  OF  THE   MOON. 


159 


from  what  they  have  when  eclipses  of  the  Sun  are  in 
question.  A  little  thought  will  soon  make  it  clear  why 
this  should  be  the  case.  A  partial  eclipse  of  the  Sun  re- 
sults from  the  visible  body  of  the  Sun  being  in  part  con- 
cealed from  us  by  the  solid  body  of  the  Moon,  and  so  in 
a  total  eclipse  there  is  total  concealment  of  the  one  object 
by  the  other. 

But  when  we  come  to  deal  with  partial  and  total 
eclipses  of  the  Moon  the  situation  is  materially  different. 
The  Moon  becomes  invisible  by  passing  into  the  dark 
shadow  cast  by  the  Earth  into  space. 

Fig.  13  will  make  this  clear  without  the  necessity  of 
much  verbal  explanation.  S  represents  the  Sun,  E  the 
Earth,  and  mn  the  orbit  of  the  Moon.  It  is  obvious  that 


FIG.  13. — Theory  of  an  eclipse  of  the  Moon. 

whilst  the  Moon  is  moving  from  m  to  n  it  becomes  im- 
mersed in  the  Earth's  shadow.  But  before  actually  reach- 
ing the  shadow  the  Moon  passes  through  a  point  in  its 
orbit  (a)  at  which  it  begins  to  lose  the  full  light  of  the  Sun. 
This  is  the  entrance  into  the  "  penumbra  "  (or  "  Partial 
shade").  Similarly,  after  the  eclipse,  when  the  Moon  has 
emerged  from  the  full  shadow  it  does  not  all  at  once  come 
into  full  sunshine,  but  again  passes  through  the  stage  of 
penumbral  illumination  (^),*and  under  such  circumstances 

*  The  time  occupied  by  the  Moon  in  passing  through  the  pe- 
numbra, before  and  after  a  lunar  eclipse,  will  generally  run  to  about 
an  hour  for  each  passage.  It  will  occasionally  happen  that  the 


l6o  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

(to  speak  in  the  style  of  Old  "Oireland")  the  invisible 
Moon  is  very  often  not  invisible,  and  the  part  partially 
eclipsed  is  often  not  eclipsed,  and  when  the  Moon  is  to- 
tally eclipsed  it  is  frequently  still  visible.  Of  course  the 
general  idea  involved  in  all  cases  of  a  body  passing  into 
the  shadow  of  another  body  is  that  the  body  which  so 
passes  disappears,  because  all  direct  light  is  cut  off  from 
it.  In  the  case,  however,  of  a  lunar  eclipse  this  state  of 
things  is  not  always  literally  accomplished,  and  very  often 
some  residual  light  reaches  the  Moon  (of  course  from  the 
Sun)  with  the  result  that  traces  of  the  Moon  may  often 
be  discerned.  The  laws  which  govern  this  matter  are 
very  ill-understood.  The  fact  remains  that  if  we  examine 
a  series  of  reports  of  observed  eclipses  of  the  Moon  ex- 
tending over  many  centuries  (and  records  exist  which  en- 
able us  to  do  this)  we  shall  find  that  in  some  instances 
when  the  Moon  was  "totally"  eclipsed  in  the  technical 
sense  of  that  word,  it  was  still  perfectly  visible,  whilst 
during  other  eclipses  it  absolutely  and  entirely  disappeared 
from  view.  Such  eclipses  are  sometimes  spoken  of  as 
"  black  "  eclipses  of  the  Moon,  but  the  phrase  is  not  a 
happy  one.  Many  instances  of  both  kinds  will  be  found 
mentioned  in  the  chapter  on  historical  lunar  eclipses.* 

The  different  conditions  of  eclipses  of  the  Moon  are 
illustrated  by  Fig.  14  which  must  be  studied  with  the  aid 
of  the  remarks  made  in  a  former  chapter  concerning  the 
apparent  movements  of  the  Sun  and  Moon  and  their 
nodal  passages.  Suffice  it  to  state  here  that  in  Fig.  14 
AB  represents  the  ecliptic,  and  CD  the  Moon's  path. 
The  three  black  circles  are  imaginary  sections  of  the 
Earth's  shadow  as  cast  when  the  Earth  is  in  three  suc- 

Moon  gets  immersed  in  a  penumbra  but  escapes  the  dark  shadow. 
Such  an  event  will  not  be  announced  in  the  almanacs  under  the 
head  of  "  Eclipses." 
*  See  p.  168  (post). 


ECLIPSES   OF  THE   MOON.  161 

cessive  positions  in  the  ecliptic.  If  when  the  Earth's 
shadow  is  near  A  the  Moon  should  he  at  E,  and  in  Con- 
junction with  the  Earth  the  Moon  will  escape  eclipse ;  if 
the  Conjunction  takes  place  with  both  the  Earth's  shadow 


FIG.  14. — Conditions  of  eclipses  of  the  Moon. 

and  the  Moon  a  little  further  forward,  say  at  F,  the  Moon 
will  be  partially  obscured ;  but  if  the  Moon  is  at  or  very 
near  its  node,  as  at  G,  it  will  be  wholly  involved  in  the 
Earth's  shadow  and  a  total  eclipse  will  be  the  result.  In 
the  case  contemplated  at  G  in  the  diagram,  the  Moon  is 
concentrically  placed  with  respect  to  the  shadow,  but  the 
eclipse  will  equally  be  total  even  though  the  two  bodies 
are  not  concentrically  disposed,  so  long  as  the  Moon  is 
wholly  within  the  cone  of  the  Earth's  shadow.* 

Just  as  in  the  case  of  the  Sun  so  with  the  Moon  there 
are  certain  limits  on  the  ecliptic  within  which  eclipses  of 
the  Moon  may  take  place,  other  (narrower)  limits  within 
which  they  must  take  place,  and  again  other  limits  beyond 
which  they  cannot  take  place.  Reverting  to  what  has 

*  The  shadow  is  spoken  of  as  being  in  the  form  of  a  cone  be- 
cause it  is  necessarily  such  on  account  of  the  light-giving  disc  of 
the  Sun  being  so  enormously  larger  in  diameter  than  the  light-re- 
ceiving sphere  of  the  Moon.  This  idea  can  be  pursued  by  any 
reader  with  the  aid  of  a  lamp  enclosed  in  a  glass  globe  and  an 
opaque  sphere  such  as  a  cricket  ball. 
II 


162  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

been  said  on  a  previous  page  *  with  respect  to  these  mat- 
ters when  an  eclipse  of  the  Sun  is  in  question  it  is  only 
necessary  to  substitute  for  the  word  "  Conjunction,"  the 
word  "Opposition  ";  and  for  i8£°  and  15^°  of  longitude 
the  figures  I2|°  and  9^°.  The  limits  in  latitude  will  be 
i°  3'  and  o°  52'  instead  of  i°  34.'  and  i°  23'.  These  sub- 
stitutions made,  the  general  ideas  and  facts  stated  with 
regard  to  the  conditions  of  an  eclipse  of  the  Sun  will  apply 
also  to  the  one  of  the  Moon. 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  whereas  eclipses  of  the  Sun 
always  begin  on  the  W.  side  of  the  Sun,  eclipses  of  the 
Moon  begin  on  the  E.  side  of  the  Moon.  This  difference 
arises  from  the  fact  that  the  Sun's  movement  in  the  eclip- 
tic is  only  apparent  (it  being  the  Earth  which  really  moves), 
whilst  the  Moon's  movement  is  real. 

Eclipses  of  the  Moon,  though  more  often  and  more 
widely  visible  than  eclipses  of  the  Sun,  do  not  offer  by  any 
means  the  same  variety  of  interesting  or  striking  phenom- 
ena to  the  mere  star-gazer,  and  it  was  long  thought  that 
they  were  in  a  certain  sense  of  no  use  to  science.  Now, 
however,  astronomers  are  inclined  to  utilise  them  for  de- 
termining the  diameter  of  the  Moon  by  noting  occulta- 
tions  f  of  stars  by  the  Moon,  the  duration  of  a  star's  in- 
visibility behind  an  eclipsed  Moon  being  a  measure  of 
the  lunar  diameter  when  such  an  observation  is  properly 
transformed  and  "  reduced."  Observations  of  the  heat 
radiated  (or  rather  reflected)  by  an  eclipsed  Moon  have 
also  been  made  with  the  interesting  result  of  showing 
that  during  an  eclipse  the  Moon's  power  to  reflect  solar 
heat  to  the  Earth  sensibly  declines. 

The  duration  of  an  eclipse  of  the  Moon  is  dependent 
on  its  magnitude.  Where  the  eclipse  is  total  the  darkness, 

*See  p.  18  (ante). 

|  As  to  occultations  see  chap.  xxi.  (post). 


ECLIPSES  OF  THE  MOON.  163 

or  what  counts  for  such,  may  last  for  nearly  4  hours, 
though  this  is  an  extreme  limit  rarely  attained.  An 
eclipse  of  from  6  to  12  digits  (to  use  the  old-fashioned 
nomenclature  which  has  been  already  explained)  will  con- 
tinue from  2£  to  3^  hours.  An  eclipse  of  3  to  6  digits 
will  last  2  or  3  hours,  and  a  smaller  eclipse  only  i  or  2 
hours.  The  visual  observations  to  be  made  in  connection 
with  partial  or  total  eclipses  of  the  Moon  chiefly  relate  to 
the  appearances  presented  by  our  satellite  when  immersed 
in  the  Earth's  shadow.  On  such  occasions,  as  has  been 
already  stated,  it  frequently  happens  that  the  Moon  does 
not  wholly  disappear,  but  may  be  detected  either  with  a 
telescope  or  even  without  one.  It  may  exhibit  either  a 
dull  grey  appearance,  or  more  commonly  a  pinkish-red 
hue  to  which  the  designation  "  coppery  "  is  generally  ap- 
plied. Perhaps  the  most  remarkable  instance  of  this  was 
the  eclipse  of  March  19,  1848. 

Mr.  Forster  who  observed  the  phenomenon  at  Bruges 
thus  describes  *  what  he  saw  : — "  I  wish  to  call  your  at- 
tention to  the  fact  which  I  have  clearly  ascertained,  that 
during  the  whole  of  the  late  eclipse  of  March  19  the 
shaded  surface  presented  a  luminosity  quite  unusual, 
probably  about  three  times  the  intensity  of  the  mean  illu- 
mination of  the  eclipsed  lunar  disc.  The  light  was  of  a 
deep  red  colour.  During  the  totality  of  the  eclipse  the 
light  and  dark  places  on  the  face  of  the  Moon  could  be 
almost  as  well  made  out  as  on  an  ordinary  dull  moonlight 
night,  and  the  deep  red  colour  where  the  sky  was  clearer 
was  very  remarkable  from  the  contrasted  whiteness  of  the 
stars.  My  observations  were  made  with  different  tele- 
scopes, but  all  presented  the  same  appearance,  and  the 
remarkable  luminosity  struck  everyone.  The  British  Con- 
sul at  Ghent,  who  did  not  know  there  was  an  eclipse, 

*  Month.  Not.,  R.A.S.,  vol.  viii.  p.  132.     March  1848. 


164  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

wrote  to  me  for  an  explanation  of  the  blood-red  colour* 
of  the  Moon  at  9  o'clock." 

In  striking  contrast  to  this  stands  the  total  eclipse  of 
Oct.  4,  1884,  which  is  described  by  Mr.  E.,J.  Stone  f  as 
"  much  the  darkest  that  I  have  ever  seen,  and  just  before 
the  instant  of  totality  it  appeared  as  if  the  Moon's  surface 
would  be  invisible  to  the  naked  eye  during  totality ;  but 
such  was  not  the  case,  for  with  the  last  appearance  of 
the  bright  reflected  sunlight  there  appeared  a  dim  circle 
of  light  around  the  Moon's  disc,  and  the  whole  surface 
became  faintly  visible,  and  continued  so  until  the  end  of 
totality." 

A  total  eclipse  of  the  Moon  which  happened  on  Jan- 
uary 28,  1888,  was  observed  in  many  places  under  excep- 
tionally favourable  circumstances  as  regards  weather. 
The  familiar  copper  colour  is  spoken  of  by  many  observers. 
The  Rev.  S.  J.  Perry  makes  mention  f  of  patches  of 
colour  even  as  bright  as  "  brick  red,  almost  orange  in  the 
brighter  parts,"  and  this.  20  minutes  before  the  total  phase 
began.  Mr.  Perry  conducted  on  this  occasion  spectro- 
scopic  observations  for  the  first  time  on  an  eclipsed  Moon, 
but  no  special  results  were  obtained. 

Various  explanations  have  been  offered  for  these  di- 
versities of  appearance.  Undoubtedly  they  depend  upon 
differences  in  the  condition  of  the  Earth's  atmosphere, 
such  as  the  unusual  presence  or  unusual  absence  of 
aqueous  vapour ;  but  it  cannot  be  said  that  the  laws 
which  control  these  diversities  are  by  any  means  capable 

*  A  very  striking  chromolithograph  of  the  lunar  eclipses  of  Oct. 
4,  1884,  and  Jan.  28,  1888,  showing  the  contrast  of — (i)  an  almost 
invisible  grey  Moon,  and  (2)  a  reddish-pink  Moon,  will  be  found  in 
the  German  astronomical  monthly,  St'rius,  vol.  xxi.  p.  241.  Nov. 
1888. 

t  Month.  Not.,  R.A.S.,  vol.  xlv.  p.  35. 

I  Month.  Not.,  R.A.S.,  vol.  xlviii.  p.  227.    March  1888. 


ECLIPSES   OF   THE   MOON.  165 

of  being  plainly  enunciated,  notwithstanding  that  the  ex- 
planation generally  in  vogue  dates  from  as  far  back  as 
the  time  of  Kepler.  He  suggested  that  the  coppery  hue 
was  a  result  of  the  refraction  of  the  Earth's  atmosphere 
which  had  the  effect  of  bending  the  solar  rays  passing 
through  it,  so  that  they  impinged  upon  the  Moon  even 
when  the  Earth  was  actually  interposed  between  the  Sun 
and  the  Moon.  That  the  outstanding  rays  which  became 
visible  are  red  may  be  considered  due  to  the  fact  that  the 
blue  rays  are  absorbed  in  passing  through  the  terrestrial 
atmosphere,  just  as  both  the  eastern  and  western  skies 
are  frequently  seen  to  assume  a  ruddy  hue  when  illumi- 
nated in  the  morning  or  evening  by  the  solar  rays  at  or 
near  sunrise  or  sunset. 

Owing  to  the  variable  meteorological  condition  of  our 
atmosphere,  the  actual  quantity  of  light  transmitted 
through  it  is  liable  to  considerable  fluctuations,  and  no 
wonder  therefore  that  variations  occur  in  the  appearances 
presented  by  the  Moon  during  her  immersion  in  the 
Earth's  shadow. 

It  has  been  suggested  that  if  the  portion  of  the  Earth's 
atmosphere  through  which  the  Sun's  rays  have  to  pass  is 
tolerably  free  from  aqueous  vapour,  the  red  rays  will  be 
almost  wholly  absorbed,  but  not  the  blue  rays ;  and  the 
resulting  illumination  will  either  only  render  the  Moon's 
surface  visible  with  a  greyish  blue  tinge,  or  not  visible  at 
all.  This  will  yield  the  "black  eclipse" — to  recall  the 
phrase  quoted  elsewhere.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  re- 
gion of  the  Earth's  atmosphere  through  which  the  Sun's 
rays  pass  be  highly  saturated,  it  will  be  the  blue  rays 
which  suffer  absorption,  whilst  the  red  rays  will  be  trans- 
mitted and  will  impart  a  ruddy  hue  to  the  Moon.  Finally 
if  the  Earth's  atmosphere  is  in  a  different  condition  in  dif- 
ferent places,  saturated  in  some  parts  and  not  in  others, 
a  piebald  sort  of  effect  will  be  the  result,  and  some  por- 


1 66  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

tions  of  the  Moon's  disc  will  be  invisible,  whilst  others 
will  be  more  or  less  illuminated.  Further  illustrations 
of  all  these  three  alternatives  will  be  found  amongst  the 
eclipses  of  the  Moon  recorded  in  the  chapter  *  devoted  to 
historical  matters. 

A  few  instances  are  on  record  of  a  curious  spectacle 
connected  with  eclipses  of  the  Moon  which  must  have  a 
word  of  mention.  I  refer  to  the  simultaneous  visibility  of 
the  Sun  and  the  Moon  above  the  horizon,  the  Moon  at 
the  time  being  eclipsed.  At  the  first  blush  of  the  thing 
this  would  seem  to  be  an  impossibility,  remembering  that 
it  is  a  cardinal  principle  of  eclipses,  both  of  the  Sun  and 
of  the  Moon,  that  the  three  bodies  must  be  in  the  same 
straight  line  in  order  to  constitute  an  eclipse.  The  anom- 
alous spectacle  just  referred  to  is  simply  the  result  of  the 
refraction  exercised  by  the  Earth's  atmosphere.  The  set- 
ting Sun  which  has  actually  set  has  apparently  not  done 
so,  but  is  displaced  upwards  by  refraction.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  rising  Moon  which  has  not  actually  risen  is  dis- 
placed upwards  by  refraction  and  so  becomes,  as  it  were, 
prematurely  visible.  In  other  words,  refraction  retards 
the  apparent  setting  of  one  body,  the  Sun,  and  accelerates 
the  apparent  rising  of  the  other  body,  the  Moon.  The 
effect  of  these  two  displacements  will  be  to  bring  the  two 
bodies  closer  by  more  than  i°  of  a  great  circle  than  they 
really  are,  this  being  the  conjoint  amount  of  the  double 
displacements  due  to  refraction. 

Amateur  observers  of  eclipses  of  the  Moon  will  find 
some  pleasure,  and  profit  as  well,  in  having  before  them 
on  the  occasion  of  an  eclipse  a  picture  of  the  Moon's  sur- 
face in  diagrammatic  form  with  a  few  of  the  principal 
mountains  marked  thereon  ;  and  then  watching  from  time 
to  time  (say  by  quarters  of  an  hour)  the  successive  en- 

*  Page  168  (J>ost). 


ECLIPSES  OF  THE   MOON.  167 

croachments  of  the  Earth's  shadow  on  the  Moon's  sur- 
face and  the  gradual  covering  up  of  the  larger  mountains 
as  the  shadow  moves  forward.  The  curved  lines  repre- 
sent the  gradual  progress  of  the  shadow  during  the 
eclipse  named.  This  diagram,  ignoring  the  curved  lines 
actually  marked  on  it,  may  be  used  over  and  over  again 
for  any  number  of  eclipses,  simply  noting  from  the  Nau- 
tical Almanac  or  other  suitable  ephemerides  the  points  on 
the  Moon's  disc  at  which  the  shadow  first  touches  the 
disc  as  it  comes  on,  and  last  touches  the  disc  as  it  goes 
off.  The  Almanac  indicates  these  points  by  stating  that 
the  eclipse  begins,  or  ends,  as  the  case  may  be,  at  a 
point  which  is  so  many  degrees  from  the  N.  point  of  the 
Moon  measured  round  the  Moon's  circumference  by  the 
E.  or  by  the  W.  as  the  case  may  be. 

One  other  point  and  we  have  disposed  of  eclipses  of 
the  Moon.  The  shadow  which  we  see  creeping  over  the 
Moon  during  an  eclipse  is,  as  we  know,  the  shadow  cast 
by  the  Earth.  If  we  notice  it  attentively  we  shall  see 
that  its  outline  is  curved,  and  that  it  is  in  fact  a  complete 
segment  of  a  circle.  Moreover  that  the  circularity  of  this 
shadow  is  maintained  from  first  to  last  so  far  as  we  are 
able  to  follow  it.  What  is  this,  then,  but  a  proof  of  the 
rotundity  of  the  Earth  ?  This  shape  of  the  Earth's  shadow 
on  the  Moon  during  a  lunar  eclipse  was  suggested  as  a 
proof  of  the  rotundity  of  the  Earth  by  two  old  Greek  as- 
tronomers, Manilius  and  Cleomedes,  who  lived  about  2000 
years  ago,  and  is  one  more  illustration  of  the  great  powers 
of  observation  and  the  general  acuteness  of  the  natural 
philosophers  of  antiquity.- 


1 68  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

CHAPTER    XVI. 
ECLIPSES  OF    THE   MOON   MENTIONED    IN    HISTORY. 

WE  saw  in  a  previous  chapter  that  we  owe  to  the  Chi- 
nese the  first  record  of  an  eclipse  of  the  Sun.  It  must 
now  be  stated  that  the  same  remark  applies  to  the  first 
recorded  eclipse  of  the  Moon,  and  Prof.  S.  M.  Russell  is 
again  our  authority.  He  refers  to  a  book  called  the  Chou- 
Shu  or  book  of  the  Chou  Dynasty,  said  to  have  been 
found  in  280  A  D.  in  the  tomb  of  an  Emperor  who  lived 
many  centuries  previously.  In  this  book  it  is  stated  that 
in  the  35th  year  of  Wen-Wang  on  the  day  Ping-Tzu 
there  was  an  eclipse  of  the  Moon.  Russell  finds  that  this 
event  may  be  assigned  to  January  29,  1136  B.C.,  and  that 
the  eclipse  was  total. 

Next  after  this  Chinese  eclipse,  in  point  of  time,  come 
several  eclipses  recorded  by  Ptolemy,  on  the  authority  of 
records  collected  or  examined  by  himself.  The  three 
earliest  of  these  came  from  Chaldaean  sources. 

The  first  of  these  eclipses  was  observed  at  Babylon, 
in  the  27th  year  of  the  era  of  Nabonassar,  the  ist  of  the 
reign  of  Mardokempadius,  on  the  2pth  of  the  Egyptian 
month  Thoth,  answering  to  March  19,  721  B.C.  The 
eclipse  began  before  moonrise,  and  the  middle  of  the  to- 
tality appears  to  have  occurred  at  9h.  3001.  p.m.  The 
other  two  eclipses,  also  observed  at  Babylon,  occurred  on 
March  8,  720  B.C.,  and  September  i,  in  the  same  year,  re- 
spectively. 

Three  other  lunar  eclipses, "recorded  by  Ptolemy,  as- 
sisted Sir  I.  Newton  in  fixing  the  Terminus  a  quo  from 
which  the  "  70  weeks  "  of  years  were  to  run  which  the 
prophet  Daniel  *  predicted  were  to  elapse  before  the  death 

*  Dan.  ix.  24. 


HISTORICAL  ECLIPSES  OF  THE  MOON.        169 

of  Christ.  This  Terminus  a  quo  dates  from  the  Restora- 
tion of  the  Jews  under  Artaxerxes,  457  B.C.  The  three 
eclipses  which  Newton  made  use  of  were  those  of  July  16, 
523,  November  19,  502,  and  April  25.  491  B.C. 

Aristophanes,  in  "The  Clouds  "  (lines  561-66),  makes 
an  allusion  which  has  been  supposed  (but  probably  with- 
out adequate  warrant,  in  Spanheim's  opinion)  to  refer  to 
an  eclipse  of  the  Moon.  The  eclipse,  October  9, 425  B.C., 
has,  moreover,  been  suggested  as  that  referred  to,  but 
the  whole  idea  seems  to  me  too  shadowy. 

An  eclipse  of  the  Moon  took  place  in  the  4th  year  of 
the  9 ist  Olympiad,  answering  to  August  27,  413  B.C., 
which  produced  very  disastrous  consequences  to  an  Athe- 
nian army,  owing  to  the  ignorance  and  incapacity  of  Nici- 
as,  the  commander.  The  army  was  in  Sicily,  confronted 
by  a  Syracusan  army,  and  having  failed,  more  or  less,  and 
sickness  having  broken  out,  it  was  decided  that  the  Athe- 
nians should  embark  and  quit  the  island.  Plutarch,  in 
his  Life  of  Nicias,  says :  "  Everything  accordingly  was 
prepared  for  embarkation,  and  the  enemy  paid  no  atten- 
tion to  these  movements,  because  they  did  not  expect 
them.  But  in  the  night  there  happened  an  eclipse  of  the 
Moon,  at  which  Nicias  and  all  the  rest  were  struck  with 
a  great  panic,  either  through  ignorance  or  superstition. 
As  for  an  eclipse  of  the  Sun,  which  happens  at  the  Con- 
junction, even  the  common  people  had  some  idea  of  its 
being  caused  by  the  interposition  of  the  Moon  ;  but  they 
could  not  easily  form  a  conception,  by  the  interposition 
of  what  body  the  Moon,  when  at  the  full,  should  suddenly 
lose  her  light,  and  assume  such  a  variety  of  colours. 
They  looked  upon  it  therefore  as  a  strange  and  preter- 
natural phenomenon,  a  sign  by  which  the  gods  announced 
some  great  calamity."  And  the  calamity  came  to  pass, 
but  only  indirectly  was  it  caused  by  the  Moon  ! 

Plutarch  and  Pliny  both  mention  that  eleven  days  be- 


170  THE   STORY   OF   ECLIPSES. 

fore  the  victory  of  Alexander  over  Darius,  at  Arbela  in 
Assyria,  there  was  an  eclipse  of  the  Moon.  Plutarch's 
words  (Life  of  Alexander)  are,  that  "  there  happened  an 
eclipse  of  the  Moon,  about  the  beginning  of  the  festival  of 
the  great  mysteries  at  Athens.  The  eleventh  night  after 
that  eclipse,  the  two  armies  being  in  view  of  each  other, 
Darius  kept  his  men  under  arms,  and  took  a  general  re- 
view of  his  troops  by  torch-light."  This  seems  to  have 
led  to  a  great  deal  of  disorderly  tumult  in  the  Assyrian 
camp,  a  fact  which  was  noticed  by  Alexander.  Several 
of  his  friends  urged  him  to  make  a  night  attack  on  the 
enemy's  camp,  but  he  preferred  that  his  Macedonians 
should  have  a  good  night's  rest,  and  it  was  then  that  he 
uttered  the  celebrated  answer,  "  I  will  not  steal  a  victory." 
Plutarch  enters  upon  some  rather  interesting  moral  re- 
flections connected  with  this  answer,  but  which  of  course 
are  foreign  to  the  subject  of  this  volume.  This  eclipse 
happened  on  September  20,  331  B.C.,  and  was  total,  the 
middle  of  the  eclipse  being  at  about  8.15  p.m.  It  follows 
therefore  that  the  celebrated  battle  of  Arbela  was  fought 
on  October  i,  331  B.C. 

In  219  B.C.  an  eclipse  of  the  Moon  was  seen  in  Mysia, 
according  to  Polybius.*  The  date  of  September  i  has 
been  assigned  for  this  eclipse  which  is  said  to  have  so 
greatly  alarmed  some  Gaulish  mercenary  troops  in  the 
service  of  Attalus,  King  of  Pergamos,  that  he  had  to  get 
rid  of  them  as  soon  as  he  could — make  terms  with  them 
to  go  home. 

On  the  eve  of  the  battle  of  Pydna  when  Perseus,  King 
of  Macedonia,  was  conquered  by  Paulus  ^Emilius,  there 
happened  an  eclipse  of  the  Moon.  Plutarch  in  his  Life  of 
Paulus  ^Emilius,  speaking  of  his  army  having  settled 
down  in  a  camp,  says : — "  When  they  had  supped  and 

*  Histories,  Book  v.,  chap.  Ixxviii. 


HISTORICAL  ECLIPSES  OF  THE  MOON.        171 

were  thinking  of  nothing  but  going  to  rest,  on  a  sudden 
the  Moon,  which  was  then  at  full  and  very  high,  began  to 
be  darkened,  and  after  changing  into  various  colours,  was 
at  last  totally  eclipsed.  The  Romans,  according  to  their 
custom,  made  a  great  noise  by  striking  upon  vessels  of 
brass  and  held  up  lighted  faggots  and  torches  in  the  air 
in  order  to  recall  her  light ;  but  the  Macedonians  did  no 
such  thing ;  horror  and  astonishment  seized  their  whole 
camp,  and  a  whisper  passed  among  the  multitude  that 
this  appearance  portended  the  fall  of  the  king.  As  for 
^milius,  he  was  not  entirely  unacquainted  with  this  mat- 
ter ;  he  had  heard  of  the  ecliptic  inequalities  which  bring 
the  Moon  at  certain  periods  under  the  shadow  of  the 
Earth  and  darken  her  till  she  has  passed  that  quarter  of 
obscurity  and  receives  light  from  the  Sun  again.  Never- 
theless, as  he  was  wont  to  ascribe  most  events  to  the 
Deity,  was  a  religious  observer  of  sacrifices  and  of  the  art 
of  divination,  he  offered  up  to  the  Moon  1 1  heifers  as  soon 
as  he  saw  her  regain  her  former  lustre.  At  break  of  day 
he  also  sacrificed  oxen  to  Hercules  to  the  number  of  20 
without  any  auspicious  sign,  but  in  the  twenty-first  the 
desired  tokens  appeared  and  he  announced  victory  to  his 
troops,  provided  they  stood  upon  the  defensive." 

The  astronomical  knowledge  ascribed  in  this  account 
to  Paulus  yEmilius,  constitutes  a  very  interesting  feature 
in  this  record  because  the  Romans,  though  they  were 
good  at  most  things,  were  by  no  means  adepts  at  the  sci- 
ence of  Astronomy.  Livy  *  tells  us  that  Sulpicius  Gallus, 
one  of  the  Roman  tribunes,  foretold  this  eclipse,  first  to 
the  Consul  and  then,  with  his  leave,  to  the  army,  where- 
by that  terror  which  eclipses  were  wont  to  breed  in  ig- 
norant minds  was  entirely  taken  off  and  the  soldiers  more 
and  more  disposed  to  confide  in  officers  of  so  great  wis- 

*  Hist.  Rom.,  Lib.  xliv.,  cap.  37. 


172  THE   STORY   OF   ECLIPSES. 

dom  and  of  such  general  knowledge.  This  eclipse  is  of- 
ten identified  with  that  of  June  21,  168  B.C.,  but  Johnson 
gives  reasons  why  this  cannot  be  the  case  and  that  the 
eclipse  in  question  was  that  which  happened  on  the  night 
of  June  10-11,  167  B.C.,  and  commenced  about  midnight, 
whereas  the  eclipse  of  168  B.C.  was  nearly  over  when 
the  Moon  was  above  the  horizon  at  Rome.  Stockwell, 
however,  fixes  on  the  eclipse  of  September  3,  172  B.C.  as 
that  which  was  connected  with  the  Battle  of  Pydna. 

Josephus,*  speaking  of  the  barbarous  acts  of  Herod, 
says  : — "  And  that  very  night  there  was  an  eclipse  of  the 
Moon."  There  has  been  some  controversy  respecting 
the  identification  of  this  eclipse  (the  only  one  mentioned 
by  Josephus)  which  also  is  associated  with  Herod's  last 
illness,  it  not  having  been  easy  to  reconcile  some  discor- 
dant chronological  statements  connected  with  the  length 
of  Herod's  reign  and  the  date  when  he  began  to  reign. 
On  the  whole,  probably,  we  shall  be  safe  in  saying  that 
the  reference  is  to  the  eclipse  of  March  13,  4  B.C.  This 
was  a  partial  eclipse  to  the  extent  of  less  than  half  the 
Moon's  diameter,  a  defalcation  of  light  sufficient,  how- 
ever, to  attract  public  notice  even  at  3  a.m.,  seeing  that 
no  doubt,  even  at  that  hour,  the  streets  of  Jerusalem  were 
in  a  state  of  turmoil  owing  to  the  burning  alive  by  Herod 
of  some  seditious  Rabbis. 

It  should  be  stated,  however,  that  Hind  assigns  the 
account  by  Josephus  to  the  eclipse  which  occurred  on 
January  9,  i  B.C.  On  this  occasion  the  Moon  passed 
nearly  centrally  through  the  Earth's  shadow  soon  after 
midnight,  emerging  at  2.57  a.m.  on  the  early  morning  of 
January  10,  local  Mean  Time  at  Jerusalem. 

Tacitus  f  mentions  an  eclipse  of  the  Moon  as  having 
happened  soon  after  the  death  of  Augustus.  This  has 

*  Antiq.,  Lib.  xvii.,  cap.  6,  sec.  4.  t  Annales,  Lib.  i.,  cap.  28. 


HISTORICAL  ECLIPSES  OF  THE  MOON.        173 

been  identified  with  the  eclipse  of  September  27,  A.D.  14. 
Tacitus  says :— "  The  Moon  in  the  midst  of  a  clear  sky 
became  suddenly  eclipsed ;  the  soldiers  who  were  igno- 
rant of  the  cause  took  this  for  an  omen  referring  to  their 
present  adventures:  to  their  labors  they  compared  the 
eclipse  of  the  planet,  and  prophesied  '  that  if  to  the  dis- 
tressed goddess  should  be  restored  her  wonted  brightness 
and  splendour,  equally  successful  would  be  the  issue  of 
their  struggle.'  Hence  they  made  a  loud  noise,  by  ring- 
ing upon  brazen  metal,  and  by  blowing  trumpets  and  cor- 
nets ;  as  she  appeared  brighter  or  darker  they  exulted  or 
lamented." 

There  was  an  eclipse  of  the  Moon  on  the  generally 
recorded  date  of  the  Crucifixion  of  our  Lord,  April  3, 
A.D.  33.  Hind  found  that  our  satellite  emerged  from 
the  Earth's  dark  shadow  about  a  quarter  of  an  hour 
before  she  rose  at  Jerusalem  (6h.  3601.  p.m.),  but  the 
penumbra  continued  upon  her  disc  for  an  hour  after- 
wards. 

On  Jan.  i,  A.D.  47,  a  total  eclipse  of  the  Moon  was 
seen  at  Rome,  and  on  the  same  night  an  island  rose  up  in 
the  vEgean  Sea. 

The  total  eclipse  of  Feb.  22,  A.D.  72,  noted  by  Pliny,* 
is  the  first  in  which  it  is  recorded  that  Sun  and  Moon 
were  both  visible  at  the  same  time,  the  eclipse  occurring 
when  the  Sun  was  rising  and  the  Moon  setting. 

Trithenius  speaks  of  an  eclipse  of  the  Moon  observed 
in  the  time  of  Merovasus.  Johnson  identifies  it  with  the 
eclipse  of  Sept.  1 5,  452  A.D.  It  was  from  Merovasus  that 
the  line  of  French  kings  known  as  Merovingians  received 
their  name. 

On  April  1 6,  A.D.  683,  according  to  Anastasius  the 
Papal  historian,  the  Moon  for  nearly  the  whole  night  ex- 

*  Nat.  Hist.,  Lib.  ii.,  cap.  3. 


174  THE   STORY  OF   ECLIPSES. 

hibited  a  blood-red  appearance,  and  did  not  emerge  from 
obscurity  till  cock-crowing. 

In  A.D.  690  an  eclipse  of  the  Moon  was  observed  in 
Wales.  We  are  told  *  that  "  the  Moon  was  turned  to  the 
colour  of  blood."  This  would  seem  to  be  the  first  eclipse 
of  the  Moon  recorded  in  Britain. 

The  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle  tells  us  that  in  A.D.  734 
"the  Moon  was  as  if  it  had  been  sprinkled  with  blood, 
and  Archbishop  Tatwine  and  Beda  died  and  Ecgberht 
was  hallowed  bishop."  The  intended  inference  appar- 
ently is  that  the  Moon  had  something  to  do  with  the 
deaths  of  the  two  ecclesiastics,  but  this  theory  will  not  hold 
water.  Beda,  it  may  be  remarked,  is  the  correct  name  of 
the  man  generally  known  to  us  as  the  "Venerable  Bede." 
It  is  evident  that  from  the  description  of  the  Moon  it  ex- 
hibited on  that  occasion  the  well-known  coppery  hue 
which  is  a  recognised  feature  of  many  total  eclipses  of  our 
satellite.  This  eclipse  occurred  on  January  24,  beginning 
at  about  i  a.m. 

On  the  night  of  January  23,  A.D.  753,  "  the  Moon  was 
covered  with  a  horrid  black  shield."  This  is  the  record 
of  an  eclipse.  It  occurred  at  about  midnight,  and  appar- 
ently we  are  entitled  to  infer  that  on  this  occasion  the 
Moon  disappeared  altogether,  instead  of  being  discover- 
able during  the  total  phase  by  exhibiting  a  coppery  hue. 

In  A.D.  755  [or  756  in  orig.],  on  November  23,  there 
happened  an  exceedingly  interesting  event  which  stands,  I 
think,  without  a  precedent  in  the  annals  of  science — an 
eclipse  of  the  Moon  contemporaneous  with  an  occultation 
of  a  planet  by  the  Moon.  This  singular  combination  is 
thus  described  in  the  annals  of  Roger  de  Hoveden  t : — 
"On  the  8th  day  before  the  Calends  of  December  the 

*  Annales  Cambria^  Rolls  ed.,  p.  8. 

f  Annales,  Rogerus  de  Hoveden,  Bohn's  ed.,  p.  5. 


HISTORICAL  ECLIPSES  OF  THE   MOON.        175 

Moon  on  her  1 5th  day  being  about  her  full,  appeared  to 
be  covered  with  the  colour  of  blood,  and  then  the  darkness 
decreasing  she  returned  to  her  usual  brightness ;  but,  in 
a  wondrous  manner,  a  bright  star  followed  the  Moon,  and 
passing  across  her,  preceded  her  when  shining,  at  the 
same  distance  which  it  had  followed  her  before  she  was 
darkened."  The  details  here  given  are  not  astronomi- 
cally quite  correct,  but  let  that  pass  ;  the  writer's  inten- 
tion is  fairly  clear.  Calculation  shows  that  the  eclips« 
occurred  on  November  23,  and  that  the  planet,  which  was 
Jupiter,  was  concealed  in  the  evening  by  the  moon  for 
about  an  hour  from  7h.  3001.  to  8h.  3om.  p.m.,  the  im- 
mersion taking  place  about  the  end  of  the  total  phase. 
This  is  the  first  occultation  of  a  star  or  planet  by  the 
Moon  observed  and  recorded  in  England. 

Under  the  year  795  the  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle  says : 
— "  In  this  year  the  Moon  was  eclipsed  between  cock- 
crowing  and  dawn  on  the  5th  of  the  Calends  of  April ;  and 
Eardwulf  succeeded  to  the  kingdom  of  the  Northumbri- 
ans on  the  2nd  of  the  Ides  of  May."  This  signifies  that 
the  eclipse  happened  on  March  28  between  3h.  and  6h.  in 
the  morning,  the  method  of  dividing  the  hours  of  night 
into  equal  portions  of  three  hours  each  being  still  in  use. 
There  was  no  eclipse  in  795  on  the  date  in  question  but 
there  was  one  in  796,  so  we  may  suppose  an  error  in  the 
year.  This  assumed,  Johnson  found  that  the  eclipse  be- 
gan at  about  4h.  a.m.,  was  total  nearly  an  hour,  and 
ended  at  about  7$h.,  so  that  the  Moon  set  eclipsed.  But 
the  above  assumption  is  dispensed  with  by  Lynn,  who  sub-, 
stitutes  one  of  his  own.*  For  "  5th  of  the  Calends  "  he 
reads  "  5th  of  the  Ides,"  which  means  April  9 ;  and  on 
that  day  in  795  he  says  there  was  an  eclipse  of  the  moon, 
but  I  have  not  found  any  other  record  of  it. 

*  Observatory,  vol.  xv.,  p.  224.     May  1892. 


176  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

In  the  year  A.  D.  800,  according  to  the  Anglo-Saxon 
Chronicle,  "  the  Moon  was  eclipsed  at  the  2nd  hour  of  the 
night  (8h.  p.m. )  on  the  i;th  day  of  the  Calends  of  Feb- 
ruary." Johnson  finds  that  there  was  an  eclipse  of  the 
Moon  on  Jan.  15.  The  middle  of  the  eclipse  occurred  at 
8  h.  34m.,  TVhs  of  the  Moon's  upper  limb  having  been 
obscured. 

Under  the  date  of  806  the  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle  says  : 
— "  This  year  was  the  Moon  eclipsed  on  the  Kalends  [ist] 
of  September  ;  and  Eardwulf,  King  of  the  Northumbrians, 
was  driven  from  his  kingdom,  and  Eanberht,  Bishop  of 
Hexham,  died."  This  eclipse  was  total,  the  totality  lasting 
from  gh.  37m.  to  xoh.  59111.  p.m. 

On  Feb.  15,  817,  according  to  the  Annales  Fuldenses, 
an  eclipse  of  the  Moon  was  observed  in  the  early  evening 
at  Paris,  and  on  the  same  night  a  Comet  was  seen.  This 
Comet  is  described  by  another  authority  as  a  "  monstrous  " 
one  and  as  being  in  Sagittarius  on  Feb.  5.  The  Chinese 
date  it  for  Feb.  1 7,  and  place  it  near  the  stars  a  and  y 
Tauri. 

In  828  two  lunar  eclipses  were  seen  in  Europe,  the 
first  on  July  i  very  early  in  the  morning,  and  the  second 
on  the  morning  of  Christmas  Day.  The  Anglo-Saxon 
Chromcle  thus  speaks  of  the  second  eclipse: — "In  this 
year  the  Moon  was  eclipsed  on  Mid-winter's  Mass-night, 
and  the  same  year  King  Ecgbryht  subdued  the  kingdom 
of  the  Mercians  and  all  that  was  South  of  the  Humber." 
The  totality  occurred  after  midnight.  There  is  some  con- 
fusion in  the  year  of  this  eclipse,  the  Chronicle  giving  it  as 
827,  whilst  calculation  shows  that  it  must  have  been  828. 
Lynn  defines  "  Mid  -  winter's  Mass  -  night  "  as  Christmas 
Eve. 

Under  the  date  of  904  the  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle 
says : — "  In  this  year  the  Moon  was  eclipsed."  There 
were  two  total  eclipses  of  the  Moon 'this  year,  one  on  May 


HISTORICAL  ECLIPSES  OF  THE  MOON.        177 

31,  and  the  other  on  Nov.  25,  and  it  does'  not  appear 
which  one  is  referred  to  in  the  Chronicle  cited.  Another 
writer,  Cedrenus,  speaks  of  a  great  eclipse  of  the  Moon 
this  year  which  he  says  foretold  the  death  of  a  kinsman  of 
the  Emperor. 

On  October  6,  1009,  there  was  a  total  eclipse  of 
the  Moon  which  presumably  is  referred  to  in  the 
statement  that  "  this  year  the  Moon  was  changed  into 
blood." 

On  Nov.  8,  1044,  there  was  a  large  partial  eclipse  in  the 
morning.  Raoul  Glaber*  (a  French  chronicler  who  died 
about  1050)  comments  upon  it  thus  :— "  In  what  manner 
it  happened,  whether  a  prodigy  brought  to  pass  by  the 
Deity  or  by  the  intervention  of  some  heavenly  body,  re- 
mains known  to  the  Author  of  knowledge.  For  the  Moon 
herself  became  like  dark  blood,  only  getting  clear  of  it  a 
little  before  the  dawn."  Truly  those  times  were  the 
"  Dark  Ages  "  in  which  ignorance  and  folly  were  rampant 
seeing  that  more  than  1000  years  previously  the  Greeks 
knew  all  about  the  causes  of  eclipses. 

Under  1078  the  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle  says: — "In 
this  year  the  Moon  was  eclipsed  3  nights  before  Candle- 
mas, and  yEgelwig,  the  'world-wide  '  Abbot  of  Evesham, 
died  on  St.  Juliana's  Mass-day  [Feb.  16] ;  and  in  this  year 
was  the  dry  summer,  and  wildfire  came  in  many  Shires 
and  burned  many  towns."  Johnson  found  that  a  total 
eclipse  of  the  Moon  happened  in  the  early  evening  of 
Jan.  30. 

On  May  5,  mo,  in  the  reign  of  Henry  I.,  there  oc- 
curred a  total  eclipse  of  the  Moon  during  which,  says  the 
Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle,  "the  Moon  appeared  in  the 
evening  brightly  shining  and  afterwards  by  little  and  little 
its  light  waned,  so  that  as  soon  as  it  was  night  it  was  so  com- 

*  HistoHarum  sui  Temporis,  Lib.  v.,  cap.  3. 
12 


iy8  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

pletely  quenched  that  neither  light  nor  orb  nor  anything 
at  all  of  it  was  seen.  And  so  it  continued  very  near  until 
day,  and  then  appeared  full  and  brightly  shining.  It  was 
on  this  same  day  a  fortnight  old.  All  the  night  the  air 
was  very  clear,  and  the  stars  over  all  the  heavens  were 
brightly  shining.  And  the  tree-fruits  on  that  night  were 
sorely  nipt."  The  totality  occurred  before  mid-night.  It 
is  evident  that  this  was  an  instance  of  a  "  black  "  eclipse 
when  the  Moon  becomes  quite  invisible  instead  of  shining 
with  the  familiar  coppery  hue. 

In  1117  there  were  two  total  eclipses,  the  first  on  June 
1 6,  and  the  second  on  December  10  The  latter  is  thus 
referred  to  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle : — "  In  the  night 
of  the  3rd  of  the  Ides  of  December  the  Moon  was  far  in 
[during  a  long  time  of]  the  night  as  if  it  were  all  bloody, 
and  afterwards  eclipsed."  The  totality  commenced  at 
11.36  p.m. 

It  is  recorded  by  Matthew  Paris  *  in  connection  with 
the  death  of  Henry  I.  that  "  the  Moon  also  was  eclipsed 
the  same  year  on  the  2pth  of  July  "  [i  135].  These  words 
seem  to  indicate  a  total  eclipse  of  the  Moon.  Johnson 
gives  the  date  as  Dec.  22,  1 135.  If  this  is  correct  the  text 
of  the  Chronicle  must  be  corrupt.  The  whole  eclipse  was 
not  visible  in  England,  the  Moon  setting  before  the  middle 
of  the  eclipse.  Stephen  had  been  crowned  king  the  same 
day,  namely  Dec.  22. 

On  June  30,  1349,  there  was  a  total  eclipse  of  the 
Moon  visible  at  London  to  which  some  interest  attaches. 
Archdeacon  Churton  f  connects  it  with  the  following  in- 
cident : — "  The  worthy  Abp.  Bradwardine,  who  flourished 

*  Chronica  Majora,  Rolls  ed.,  edited  by  the  Rev.  H.  R.  Luard, 
vol.  ii.  p.  161.  Another  version  of  this  work  is  in  circulation  under 
the  name  of  Rogerus  de  Wendover,  Flores  Historiarum.  The 
passage  here  quoted  appears  in  vol.  i.  p.  482,  Bohn's  ed. 

\History  of  the  Early  English  Church,  1870  ed.,  p.  271. 


HISTORICAL  ECLIPSES  OF  THE  MOON. 


179 


in  the  reign  of  the  Norman  Edwards,  and  died  A.D.  1349, 
tells  a  story  of  a  witch  who  was  attempting  to  impose  on 
the  simple  people  of  the  time.  It  was  a  fine  summer's 
night,  and  the  Moon  was  suddenly  eclipsed.  '  Make  me 
good  amends,'  said  she,  '  for  old  wrongs,  or  I  will  bid  the 
Sun  also  to  withdraw  his  light  from  you.'  Bradwardine, 
who  had  studied  the  Arabian  astronomers,  was  more  than 
a  match  for  this  simple  trick,  without  calling  in  the  aid  of 
the  Saxon  law.  'Tell  me,'  he  said,  'at  what  time  you 
will  do  this,  and  we  will  believe  you ;  or  if  you  will  not 
tell  me  I  will  tell  you  when  the  Sun  or  the  Moon  will 
next  be  darkened,  in  what  part  of  their  orb  the  darkness 
will  begin,  how  far  it  will  spread,  and  how  long  it  will 
continue.'" 

An  eclipse  of  the  moon  which  happened  when  Colum- 
bus was  at  the  Island  of  Jamaica  proved  of  great  service 
to  him  when  he  was  in  difficulties  owing  to  the  want  of 
food  supplies  which  the  inhabitants  refused  to  afford. 
The  eclipse  was  a  total  one,  and  so  far  as  the  description 
goes  the  eclipses  of  April  2,  1493,  and  March  i,  1504,  both 
respond  to  the  recorded  circumstances :  both  were  total 
and  both  occurred  soon  after  sunset.  But,  inasmuch  as 
in  the  life  of  Columbus  written  by  his  son  the  incident  is 
placed  nearly  at  the  end  of  the  work,  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  it  is  the  later  of  the  above  eclipses  which  was 
the  one  in  question.  The  story  is  very  graphically  told 
by  Sir  A.  Helps  *  in  the  words  following  :— 

"  The  Indians  refused  to  minister  to  their  wants  any 
longer ;  and  famine  was  imminent.  But  just  at  this  last 
extremity,  the  admiral,  ever  fertile  in  devices,  bethought 
him  of  an  expedient  for  re-establishing  his  influence  over 
the  Indians.  His  astronomical  knowledge  told  him  that 
on  a  certain  night  an  eclipse  of  the  Moon  would  take 

*  Life  of  Columbus,  p.  247. 


180  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

place.  One  would  think  that  people  living  in  the  open 
air  must  be  accustomed  to  see  such  eclipses  sufficiently 
often  not  to  be  particularly  astonished  at  them.  But  Co- 
lumbus judged — and  as  the  event  proved,  judged  rightly 
—that  by  predicting  the  eclipse  he  would  gain  a  reputa- 
tion as  a  prophet,  and  command  the  respect  and  the 
obedience  due  to  a  person  invested  with  supernatural 
powers.  He  assembled  the  caciques  of  the  neighbouring 
tribes.  Then,  by  means  of  an  interpreter,  he  reproached 
them  with  refusing  to  continue  to  supply  provisions  to  the 
Spaniards.  'The  God  who  protects  me,' he  said,  'will 
punish  you.  You  know  what  has  happened  to  those  of 
my  followers  who  have  rebelled  against  me ;  and  the 
dangers  which  they  encountered  in  their  attempt  to  cress 
Haiti,  while  those  who  went  at  my  command  made  the 
passage  without  difficulty.  Soon,  too,  shall  the  divine 
vengeance  fall  on  you  ;  this  very  night  shall  the  Moon 
change  her  colour  and  lose  her  light,  in  testimony  of  the 
evils  which  shall  be  sent  upon  you  from  the  skies.' 

"  The  night  was  fine :  the  moon  shone  down  in  full 
brilliancy.  But  at  the  appointed  time  the  predicted  phe- 
nomenon took  place,  and  the  wild  howls  of  the  savages 
proclaimed  their  abject  terror.  They  came  in  a  body  to 
Columbus  and  implored  his  intercession.  They  promised 
to  let  him  want  for  nothing  if  only  he  would  avert  this 
judgment.  As  an  earnest  of  their  sincerity,  they  collected 
hastily  a  quantity  of  food  and  offered  it  at  his  feet.  At 
first,  diplomatically  hesitating,  Columbus  presently  affected 
to  be  softened  by  their  entreaties.  He  consented  to  inter- 
cede for  them ;  and,  retiring  to  his  cabin,  performed,  as 
they  supposed,  some  mystic  rite  which  should  deliver 
them  from  the  threatened  punishment.  Soon  the  terrible 
shadow  passed  away  from  the  face  of  the  moon,  and  the 
gratitude  of  the  savages  was  as  deep  as  their  previous  ter- 
ror. But  being  blended  with  much  awe,  it  was  not  so 


HISTORICAL  ECLIPSES  OF  THE   MOON.       181 

evanescent  as  gratitude  often  is  ;  and  henceforth  there  was 
no  failure  in  the  regular  supply  of  provisions  to  the  cast- 
aways." 

Tycho  Brahe  observed  a  lunar  eclipse  on  July  7,  1590. 
He  writes : — "  In  the  morning  about  3! h.  the  Moon  be- 
gan to  be  eclipsed  :  in  this  eclipse  it  is  notable  that  both 
luminaries  were  at  the  same  time  above  the  horizon ;  a 
like  case  which  Pliny  cites.  For  the  centre  of  the  Sun 
emerged  when  the  Moon  was  2°  elevated  above  the  West- 
ern horizon,  and  when  her  centre  was  setting,  the  centre 
of  the  sun  was  elevated  nearly  2°."* 

On  August  1 6,  1598,  there  occurred  a  total  eclipse  of 
the  Moon,  observed  by  Kepler,  t  in  which  during  totality  a 
part  of  the  Moon  was  visible  and  the  rest  invisible.  He 
says,  that  while  one-half  of  the  disc  was  seen  with  great 
difficulty  the  other  half  was  discernible  by  a  deep  red 
light  of  such  brilliancy  that  at  first  he  was  doubtful 
whether  our  satellite  was  immersed  in  the  Earth's  shadow 
at  all.  This  is  an  instance  of  the  simultaneous  operation 
of  those  causes  (whatever  they  may  be)  which  result  in  a 
totally-eclipsed  Moon  being  sometimes  wholly  invisible 
and  sometimes  entirely  visible  as  a  copper-coloured  disc. 

An  eclipse  of  the  Moon  which  happened  on  the  morn- 
ing of  July  6,  1610,  may  be  mentioned  as  having  been  the 
first  to  be  viewed  through  a  telescope.  The  eclipse  was 
only  a  large  partial  one.  The  following  record  of  the  fact 
is  due  to  Tycho  Brahe. t  "The  beginning  of  the  eclipse 
of  the  Moon  as  observed  through  the  Roman  telescope, 
appeared  like  a  dark  thread  in  contact  with  the  shadow  " 
— a  description  which  cannot  be  said  to  be  unduly  ex- 
plicit. 

*  Historia  Ccelestis,  vol.  i.  p.  xci. 

t  Astronomic  Pars  Optica,  p.  276 ;  Opera  Otnnia,  vol.  ii.  p. 
302  ;  Frisch's  edition. 

J  Historia  Ccelestis,  vol.  ii.  p.  921. 


1 82  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

In  1620,  on  June  15,  there  was  a  total  eclipse  of  the 
Moon,  when  during  the  total  phase  "  the  Moon  was  seen 
with  great  difficulty.  It  shone,  moreover,  like  the  thinnest 
nebula,  far  fainter  than  the  Milky  Way,  without  any  cop- 
per tinge.  About  the  middle  of  the  second  hour  nothing 
at  all  could  be  seen  of  the  Moon  with  the  naked  eye,  and 
through  the  telescope  so  doubtfully  was  anything  seen 
that  no  one  could  tell  whether  the  Moon  was  not  some- 
thing else."  It  is  expressly  stated,  however,  that  the  sky 
was  quite  clear.  Kepler  also  observed  this  eclipse,  and 
says  that  the  Moon  quite  disappeared,  though  stars  of  the 
4th  and  5th  magnitudes  were  plainly  visible.  *  In  this 
same  year  1620,  there  was  on  December  9  another  total 
eclipse,  when  "  the  Moon  altogether  disappeared  so  that 
nothing  could  be  seen  of  it,  though  the  stars  shone 
brightly  all  around :  she  continued  lost  and  invisible  for  a 
quarter  of  an  hour  more  or  less."  This  observation  seems 
to  have  been  made  at  Ingolstadt. 

Wendelinus  mentions  the  eclipse  of  April  14,  1623,  in 
connection  with  the  question  of  the  visibility  of  the  Moon 
when  totally  eclipsed.  He  says,  "  but  sometimes  it  so  far 
retains  the  light  derived  from  the  Sun  that  you  would 
doubt  whether  any  part  of  it  were  eclipsed."  This  eclipse 
was  observed  by  Gassendi,  and  if  the  above  record  is  cor- 
rect, it  is  the  more  remarkable  seeing  that  the  eclipse  was 
not  total,  only  ^ths  of  the  Moon's  diameter  being  ob- 
scured. 

On  April  25,  1642,  on  the  occasion  of  a  total  eclipse, 
Hevelius  t  noted  that  the  Moon  wholly  disappeared  when 
immersed  in  the  Earth's  shadow.  Crabtree  is  stated  by 
Flamsteed  J  to  have  observed  this  eclipse,  but  he  does  not 

*  Epitomes  Astronomies,  p.  825  ;  Opera  Omnia,  vol.  vi.  p.  482 ; 
Frisch's  edition. 

t  Selenographia,  p.  117.  J  Historia  Cosiest  is,  vol.  i.  p.  4. 


HISTORICAL  ECLIPSES  OF  THE   MOON.        183 

plainly  state  that  he  lost  sight  of  the  Moon.  Crabtree  or 
his  editor  dates  this  eclipse  for  April  4;  Ferguson  for 
April  15.  There  appears  to  be  some  muddle  as  between 
"  old  style  "  and  "  new  style."  Ferguson  professing  to  be 
N.S.  is  evidently  wrong.  Hevelius  gives  the  double  date, 
£f ,  which  is  evidently  right. 

On  June  16,  1666,  the  Moon  was  seen  in  Tuscany  to 
rise  eclipsed,  the  Sun  not  having  yet  set  in  the  W. 

On  May  26,  1668,  an  eclipse  of  the  Moon  was  in  prog- 
ress in  the  early  morning,  when  the  Sun  was  seen  to  rise 
by  members  of  the  Academy  of  Sciences  who  were  ob- 
serving the  phenomenon  at  Montmartre  near  Paris. 

On  December  23,  1703,  the  Moon  when  totally  im- 
mersed was  seen  at  Avignon  showing  a  ruddy  light  of 
such  brilliancy  that  we  are  told  it  had  the  appearance  of  a 
transparent  body  illuminated  by  a  light  placed  behind. 
Johnson  finds  that  the  total  phase  took  place  in  the  early 
morning,  and  lasted  from  5h.  36m.  to  7h.  22m.  a.m. 

The  lunar  eclipse  of  May  18,  1761,  as  observed  by 
Wargentin,*  at  Stockholm,  furnishes  a  remarkable  in- 
stance of  the  invisibility  of  the  Moon  on  certain  occasions, 
when  completely  immersed  in  the  Earth's  shadow.  The 
total  immersion  of  the  Moon  took  place  at  loh.  4101.  p.m. 
The  part  of  the  margin  of  the  lunar  disc  which  had  last 
entered  the  shadow  was  fairly  conspicuous  for  5  or  6 
minutes  after  the  immersion,  and  to  the  naked  eye  exhib- 
ited a  lustre  equal  to  that  of  a  star  of  the  2nd  magnitude  ; 
but  at  loh.  52m.  this  part,  as  well  as  the  whole  of  the 
rest  of  the  Moon's  body,  "had  disappeared  so  completely, 
that  not  the  slightest  trace  of  any  portion  of  the  lunar  disc 
could  be  discerned  either  with  the  naked  eye  or  with  the 
telescope,  although  the  sky  was  clear,  and  the  stars  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  Moon  were  distinctly  visible  in  the  tele- 

*  Phil,  Trans.,  vol.  Hi.  p.  210.     1762. 


184  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

scope.  "  After  more  than  half  an  hour's  search,  Wargen- 
tin  at  length  discovered  the  whereabouts  of  the  Moon  by 
means  of  a  faint  light,  which  was  visible  at  the  Eastern 
edge  of  the  disc.  A  few  minutes  afterwards,  some  per- 
sons of  acute  vision  were  able  to  discern,  with  the  naked 
eye,  a  trace  of  the  Moon,  looking  like  a  patch  of  thin  va- 
pour, but  more  than  half  the  disc  was  still  invisible. 

An  eclipse  of  the  Moon,  on  March  29,  1801,  was  ob- 
served by  Humboldt,  on  board  ship,  off  the  Island  of  Baru, 
not  far  from  Cartagena  de  las  Indias,  in  the  Caribbean 
Sea.*  He  remarks  that  he  was  "  exceedingly  struck  with 
the  greater  luminous  intensity  of  the  Moon's  disc  under  a 
tropical  sky  than  in  my  native  North."  Johnson  makes 
Humboldt  to  refer  to  the  greater  clearness  of  the  "  reddened 
disc,"  but  these  words  do  not  appear  either  in  the  Ger- 
man or  in  the  English  version. 

A  total  eclipse  of  the  Moon  occurred  on  June  10,  1816. 
As  observed  by  Beer  and  Madler  and  others,  the  Moon 
completely  disappeared.  The  summer  of  1816,  be  it  re- 
membered, was  very  wet,  and  probably  this  had  something 
to  do  with  the  Moon's  invisibility  at  the  eclipse  in  question. 

On  October  13,  1837,  there  happened  a  total  eclipse 
of  the  Moon,  of  which  Sir  J.  Herschel  and  Admiral  W.  H. 
Smyth  have  left  us  interesting  accounts.t  The  changes 
of  tint,  both  as  regards  times  and  places  on  the  Moon's 
disc,  recorded  by  the  latter,  are  very  remarkable.  And 
the  tints  themselves  varied  very  much  inter  se.  The 
Admiral  speaks  of  "copper,"  "sea-green,"  "neutral  tint," 
and  "  silvery,"  as  hues  visible  in  one  part  of  the  Moon  or 
another,  and  at  one  time  or  another. 


*  Cosmos,  Trans.  Sabine,  vol.  iii.  p.  356  ;  vol.  iv.  p.  483.  Bohn's 
edit. 

\  Cycle  of  Celest.  O6j.,  vol.  i.  p.  144;  transcribed  in  G.  F. 
Chambers's  Handbook  of  Astronomy,  vol.  i.  p.  329. 


CATALOGUES  OF  ECLIPSES.  185 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

CATALOGUES  OF    ECLIPSES:    AND  THEIR  CALCU- 
LATION. 

THIS  must  of  necessity  be  a  brief  chapter,  so  far  as 
mere  lines  of  text  are  concerned,  but  it  will  not  on  that  ac- 
count be  unimportant.  It  will  be  evident  to  the  reader  that 
many  more  eclipses  of  interest  have  happened,  and  will 
happen,  than  it  has  been  possible  to  speak  of  in  these  pages. 
Accordingly,  as  it  is  one  of  the  main  objects  of  this  series 
of  volumes  to  create  a  thirst  for  knowledge,  to  be  satisfied 
by  the  study  of  other  and  bigger  volumes,  it  will  be  desir- 
able to  furnish  a  list  of  some  of  the  various  books  and 
publications,  in  which  eclipses  will  be  found  catalogued 
or  described  in  detail,  so  that  readers  desirous  of  pursu- 
ing the  matter  further,  may  possess  facilities  for  doing  so. 

By  far  the  most  complete  and  comprehensive  cata- 
logue of  solar  eclipses  is  that  prepared  some  years  ago  by 
an  Austrian  astronomer,  the  late  Theodore  Von  Oppolzer 
of  Vienna,  and  published  under  the  title  of  Canon  der 
Finsterntsse,  in  the  Memoirs  of  the  Imperial  Academy 
of  Sciences.*  This  work  supplies  approximate  calcula- 
tions of  about  8000  eclipses  of  the  Sun,  for  a  period  of 
more  than  3000  years,  from  November  10,  1207  B.C.  (Ju- 
lian Calendar),  to  November  17  2161  A.D.  (Gregorian 
Calendar).  There  are  appended  160  charts,  of  all  the 
principal  eclipses ;  but  as  the  charts  only  exhibit  the 
beginnings,  middles,  and  ends  of  the  eclipses  dealt  with, 
they  are  frequently  misleading,  because  the  intermediate 
lines  of  path  are,  in  many  cases,  more  or  less  considerably 
curved. 

*  Denkschriften  der  Kaiserlichcn  Akademie  der  Wisstnschaf- 
fen,  vol.  lii.    Vienna,  1887. 


1 86  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

Another  very  important  and  comprehensive  catalogue 
of  eclipses,  solar  and  lunar  together,  will  be  found  in  the 
well-known  French  work,  L'Art  de  verifier  les  Dates,* 
compiled  by  a  member  of  the  religious  order  of  St.  Maur. 
One  volume  of  this  famous  work  contains  eclipses  from 
the  year  1001  B.C.  to  the  Christian  Era,  whilst  another 
volume  gives  a  similar  catalogue  from  the  year  i  A.D.  to 
2000  A.D.  The  other  volumes  deal  with  chronological 
matters  only.  Although  not  strictly  a  work  of  extreme 
astronomical  exactness,  yet  L'Art  de  verifier  les  Dates 
stands  unrivalled  as  a  record  not  only  to  subserve  the 
purpose  indicated  by  its  title,  but  of  the  bare  facts  of  the 
eclipses  which  have  happened  during  the  period  of  3000 
years  stated  above. 

There  has  not  been  much  done  in  England  in  the  way 
of  publishing  eclipse  records  or  tables,  past  or  future,  but 
in  the  British  Almanac  and  Companion  for  1 832  there  is 
given  a  catalogue,  which  was  useful  in  its  day,  of  eclipses, 
then  future  from  1832  to  1900,  omitting,  however,  solar 
eclipses  hardly  visible  to  any  inhabited  portion  of  the 
Earth,  and  lunar  eclipses  where  the  part  of  the  Moon's 
diameter  obscured  was  less  than  -rVth- 

In  bygone  days  several  attempts  were  made  to  gather 
together  in  a  tabular  or  paragraph  form  the  details  of 
eclipses  which  had  happened,  and  some  of  these  have 
been  important  sources  of  information  for  the  guidance  of 
us  moderns.  Foremost  among  these  efforts  must  be 
named  the  Almagestum  Novum  of  J.  B.  Ricciolus.f  This 

*  There  are  several  editions  of  this  work  in  circulation.  The 
first  (published  in  1783)  was  in  folio  volumes,  but  the  best  known 
edition  is  in  a  large  number  of  octavo  volumes  published  in  1818 
and  following  years.  The  eclipse  lists  will  be  found  in  the  ist  vol- 
umes of  the  first  and  second  series  respectively.  The  French  as- 
tronomer, Pingre,  is  responsible  for  them. 

•f  Published  at  Bononia  ^  Bologna)  in  1653. 


CATALOGUES  OF  ECLIPSES.  187 

work  contains  a  catalogue  of  eclipses  observed  from  772 
B.C.  to  A.D.  1647,  and  continued  in  tables  to  A.D.  1700. 
It  is  prefaced  (pp.  286 — 8)  by  a  long  series  of  quotations 
from  classical  authors  relating  to  eclipses,  some  few  of 
which  have  already  been  mentioned  in  these  pages. 

Kepler  paid  much  attention  to  eclipses,  and  left  behind 
him  a  large  mass  of  notes  and  original  observations. 
These  will  be  found  chiefly  in  his  Astronomies  Pars  Op- 
tica,  c.  vii.  §  2,  originally  published  at  Frankfurt  in  1604. 
The  most  convenient  and  accessible  edition  of  this  is  to 
be  found  in  Frisch's  reprint  of  all  Kepler's  works.  * 

Tycho  Brahe  also  gathered  together  from  various 
sources  many  observations  of  eclipses,  and  combined 
them  with  a  number  of  his  own,  the  whole  being  pub- 
lished in  his  Historia  CoelestisA  Tycho  Brahe  was  a 
very  interesting  personage  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  he 
went  all  astray  on  the  subject  of  the  system  of  the  Uni- 
verse, and  he  well  deserves,  what  has  been  given  to  him, 
a  book  \  all  to  himself.  It  is  peculiarly  appropriate  that  I 
should  give  him  a  good  word  in  this  little  volume  on 
eclipses,  because  it  was  the  solar  eclipse  of  Aug.  21,  1560, 
which  first  seriously  led  him  to  take  up  astronomical  pur- 
suits, he  being  then  14  years  of  age,  and  struck  with  won- 
der that  eclipses  could  be  predicted. 

A  vast  amount  of  historical  and  other  information  re- 
specting eclipses  will  be  found  in  a  book,  the  latinised 
name  of  whose  author  is  Sethus  Calvisius.  The  title  of 

*  Omnia  Opera,  vol.  ii.  pp.  311-16.  Edited  by  Ch.  Frisch. 
8  vols.  8vo.  Frankofurti-a-M.,  1857 — 60. 

t  A  collected  edition  of  Tycho  Brahe's  works,  edited  by  "  Lu- 
cius Barettus,"  was  published  at  Augusts  Vindilicorum  (Augs- 
burg^ in  1666.  Lucius  Barettus  is  an  anagram  for  the  real  name 
Albertus  Curtius. 

J  J.  L.  E.  Dreyer,  Tycho  Brahe  :  a  Picture  of  Scientific  Life 
and  Work  in  the  Sixteenth  Century. 


1 88  THE   STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

the  work  is  Opus  Chronologtcum*  The  historical  matter 
is  very  much  mixed,  but  the  eclipses  can  be  got  hold  of 
through  the  Index,  which  is  very  full.  P.  Gassendi.t  a 
well-known  astronomer  of  the  i;th  century,  left  behind 
him  observations  of  many  eclipses  observed  by  himself 
between  1628  and  1655.  In  a  book  entitled  An  Intro- 
duction to  Universal  Geography, \  one  Nicolas  Struyck  in 
the  middle  of  the  i8th  century  published  a  very  full  array 
of  eclipse  observations  collected  with  infinite  pains  from 
an  endless  variety  of  authors  ancient  and  modern. 

In  1757  the  well-known  James  Ferguson  reprinted  in 
his  Astronomy,  #  but  in  a  very  condensed  form,  all 
Struyck's  eclipses  from  721  B.C.  to  A.D.  1485.  Then  he 
carried  on  his  catalogue  to  1800  by  means  of  the  mate- 
rials furnished  by  Ricciolus  and  L'Art  de  verifier  les 
Dates.  Ferguson  also  invented  a  machine  for  illustrating 
mechanically  the  circumstances  of  an  eclipse.  He  called 
it  the  •' Eclipsareon."  A  full  description  is  given  in  his 
book,  mentioned  above,  but  I  do  not  know  whether  any 
such  instrument  is  still  in  existence,  or,  if  so,  where  it  is 
to  be  found. 

Ferguson  apologises  ||  for  the  incompleteness  of  his 
eclipse  information  in  the  following  words : — "  I  have  not 
cited  one  half  of  Ricciolus's  list  of  portentous  eclipses,  and 
for  the  same  reason  that  he  declines  giving  any  more  of 
them  than  what  that  list  contains,  namely,  that  'tis  most 
disagreeable  to  dwell  any  longer  on  such  nonsense,  and 
'  as  much  as  possible  to  avoid  tiring  the  reader.  The 
superstition  of  the  ancients  may  be  seen  by  the  few  here 

*  Opus  Chronologicum.     Francofurti  ad  Moenum,  1650. 
t  Astronomica,  vol.  iv.     Lugduni,  1657. 

I  Inleiding  tot  de  Algemeene  Geographie.     Amsterdam,  1740. 

*  Astronomy  Explained  upon  Sir  Isaac  Newton's  Principles. 
and  ed.,  410,  pp.  167 — 79.     London,  1757. 

||  Astronomy,  p.  178. 


CATALOGUES  OF  ECLIPSES.  189 

copied.  My  author  further  says  that  there  were  treatises 
written  to  show  against  what  regions  the  malevolent 
effects  of  any  particular  eclipse  was  aimed,  and  the  writers 
affirmed  that  the  effects  of  an  eclipse  of  the  Sun  continued 
as  many  years  as  the  eclipse  lasted  hours,  and  that  of  the 
Moon  as  many  months." 

The  most  comprehensive  (indeed  almost  the  only) 
modern  English  book  on  eclipses  is  the  Rev.  S.  J.  John- 
son's.* of  which  frequent  use  has  already  been  made  in 
these  pages.  It  contains  a  vast  amount  of  matter  put 
together  in  a  condensed  form,  but  the  references  to  au- 
thorities are  rather  defective  and  deficient.  Less  compre- 
hensive in  one  sense  yet  exceedingly  valuable  and  inter- 
esting as  a  succinct  summary  of  solar  eclipse  knowledge 
up  to  the  date  of  1896  is  Mrs.  D.  P.  Todd's  excellent  little 
volume  f  which  has  been  several  times  quoted  on  previous 
pages.  On  various  occasions  in  1890  and  following  years 
Professor  J.  N.  Stockwell  contributed  to  the  American  As- 
tronomical Journal  a  number  of  papers  \  discussing  in  a 
very  interesting  and  exhaustive  manner  many  of  the  eclipses 
recorded  by  the  ancient  classical  authors.  These  papers 
should  be  consulted  by  all  who  desire  to  realise  the  value 
of  eclipse  records  in  connection  with  mundane  chronology. 

The  calculation  of  eclipses  is  a  matter  of  some  interest. 
It  is  beyond  the  scope  of  the  present  work  to  explain  even 
in  outline  the  methods  in  use,  but  with  the  aid  of  the 
books  mentioned  below*  a  reader  possessed  of  the  neces- 


*  Historical  and  Future  Eclipses,  and  ed.,  1896. 

t  Total  Eclipses  of  the  Sun.     Boston,  U.  S.,  1894. 
\  Astronomical  Journal,  vol.  x.  pp.  25,  185 ;  vol.  xi.  pp.  5,  28, 
57 ;  vol.  xii.  p.  121 ;  vol.  xiii.  p.  73 ;  vol.  xv.  p.  734  vol.  xvi.  pp. 

89,  175- 

*  J.  Ferguson.     Op.  cit. ;  W.  D.  Snooke,  Brief  Astronomical 
Tables  for  the  Expeditious  Calculation  of  Eclipses,  8vo.,  Lond., 
1852. 


190  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

sary  time,  mathematical  knowledge,  and  patience,  will  be 
able  to  pursue  this  matter  as  far  as  his  inclination  may 
lead  him.  Johnson  has  found  very  useful  the  tables  given 
in  the  eighth  edition  of  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica 
(Article,  "  Astronomy  ")  but  strange  to  say  these  tables  do 
not  appear  in  ninth  edition  of  that  famous  work. 

Lalande*  has  given  numerous  references  to  eclipses  of 
the  Sun  during  the  i6th,  I7th  and  i8th  centuries  which 
may  be  useful  to  those  who  wish  to  work  at  the  history 
of  eclipses. 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

STRANGE  ECLIPSE   CUSTOMS. 

I  HAD  intended  heading  this  chapter  "Eclipse  Cus- 
toms amongst  Barbarous  Nations,"  but  in  these  days  it 
is  dangerous  to  talk  of  barbarians  or  to  speak  one's  mind 
on  points  of  social  etiquette  so  I  have  thought  it  well  to 
tone  down  the  original  title,  otherwise  I  should  have 
the  partisans  of  the  "  Heathen  Chinee  "  holding  me  up  to 
scorn  as  a  reviler  of  the  brethren. 

Did  space  permit  a  very  interesting  record  might  be 
furnished  of  eclipse  customs  in  foreign  parts. 

An  eclipse  happened  during  Lord  Macartney's  em- 
bassy to  China  \  which  kept  the  Emperor  and  his  Manda- 
rins for  a  whole  day  devoutly  praying  the  gods  that  the 
Moon  might  not  be  eaten  up  by  the  great  dragon  which 
was  hovering  about  her.  The  next  day  a  pantomime  was 
performed,  exhibiting  the  battle  of  the  dragon  and  the 

*  Bibliographic  Astronomique .  Paris,  1803.  Indexed  at  p. 
938. 

\  Authentic  Account  of  an  Embassy  to  CAtna,  by  Sir  G.  Staun- 


STRANGE  ECLIPSE  CUSTOMS.  191 

Moon,  and  in  which  two  or  three  hundred  priests,  bear- 
ing lanterns  at  the  end  of  long  sticks,  dancing  and  caper- 
ing about,  sometimes  over  the  plain,  and  then  over  chairs 
and  tables,  bore  no  mean  part. 

Professor  Russell,  who  is  quoted  elsewhere  in  this 
work  with  respect  to  Chinese  eclipses,  makes  the  follow- 
ing remarks  in  regard  to  what  happens  now  in  China 
when  eclipses  occur :— "  It  will  be  interesting  here  to  note 
that,  even  at  present,  by  Imperial  command,  special  rites 
are  performed  during  solar  and  lunar  eclipses.  A  presi- 
dent from  each  of  the  six  boards,  with  two  inferior  offi- 
cials, dressed  in  their  official  clothes,  proceed  to  the  T'ai- 
Ch'ang  Ssu.  When  the  eclipse  begins  they  change  their 
robes  for  common  garments  made  of  plain  black  material, 
and  kneeling  down,  burn  incense.  The  president  then 
beats  one  stroke  on  a  gong,  and  the  ceremony  is  taken  up 
by  all  the  attendant  officials." 

A  writer  in  Chambers  s  Journal*  in  an  article  entitled 
"The  Hindu  view  of  the  late  Eclipse,"  gives  an  interest- 
ing and  original  account  of  divers  Hindu  superstitions  and 
ceremonies  which  came  under  his  notice  in  connection 
with  the  total  eclipse  of  the  Sun  of  Aug.  18,  1868.  He 
remarks  that  "  European  science  has  as  yet  produced  but 
little  effect  upon  the  minds  of  the  superstitious  masses  of 
India.  Of  the  many  millions  who  witnessed  the  eclipse  of 
the  1 8th  of  August  last  there  were  comparatively  few  who 
did  not  verily  believe  that  it  was  caused  by  the  dragon 
Rahu  in  his  endeavour  to  swallow  up  the  Lord  of  Day. 
.  .  .  The  pious  Hindu,  before  the  eclipse  comes  on,  takes 
a  torch,  and  begins  to  search  his  house  and  carefully  re- 
moves all  cooked  food,  and  all  water  for  drinking  pur- 
poses. Such  food  and  water,  by  the  eclipse,  incur  Gra- 
hana  seshah,  that  is,  uncleanness,  and  are  rendered  unfit 

»  Fourth  Series,  vol.  v.  p.  676.    October  24,  1868. 


192  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

for  use.  Some,  with  less  scruples  of  conscience,  declare 
that  the  food  may  be  preserved  by  placing  on  it  dharba 
or  Kusa  grass,"  and  much  more  to  the  like  effect  is  duly 
set  out  in  the  interesting  article  cited. 

During  the  total  eclipse  of  the  Sun  of  Aug.  7,  1869, 
the  following  incident  is  noted  *  to  have  occurred  at  a 
station  on  the  Chilkaht  river  in  Alaska,  North  America, 
frequented  by  Indians  : — 

"  About  the  time  the  Sun  was  half  obscured  the  chief 
Koh-Klux  and  all  the  Indians  had  disappeared  from 
around  the  observing  tent;  they  left  off  fishing  on  the 
river  banks ;  all  employments  were  discontinued  ;  and 
every  soul  disappeared  ;  nor  was  a  sound  heard  through- 
out the  village  of  53  houses.  The  natives  had  been 
warned  of  what  would  take  place,  but  doubted  the  predic- 
tion. When  it  did  occur  they  looked  upon  me  as  the 
cause  of  the  Sun's  being  'very  sick  and  going  to  bed.' 
They  were  thoroughly  alarmed,  and  overwhelmed  with  an 
undefinable  dread." 

A  still  more  thrilling  incident  is  thus  recorded  t  of  the 
eclipse  of  July  29,  1878,  by  a  witness  at  Fort  Sill,  Indian 
Territory,  U.S. : — 

"  On  Monday  last  we  were  permitted  to  see  the  eclipse 
of  the  Sun  in  a  beautiful  bright  sky.  Not  a  cloud  was 
visible.  We  had  made  ample  preparation,  laying  in  a 
stock  of  smoked  glass  several  days  in  advance.  It  was 
the  grandest  sight  I  ever  beheld,  but  it  frightened  the  In- 
dians badly.  Some  of  them  threw  themselves  upon  their 
knees  and  invoked  the  Divine  blessing;  others  flung 
themselves  flat  on  the  ground,  face  downward ;  others 
cried  and  yelled  in  frantic  excitement  and  terror.  Finally 
one  old  fellow  stepped  from  the  door  of  his  lodge,  pistol 

*  Report  U.S.  Coast  Survey,  1869,  p.  179. 

t  Letter  published  in  the  Philadelphia  Inquirer. 


STRANGE  ECLIPSE  CUSTOMS. 


193 


in  hand,  and  fixing  his  eyes  on  the  darkened  Sun,  mum- 
bled a  few  unintelligible  words  and  raising  his  arm  took 
direct  aim  at  the  luminary,  fired  off  his  pistol,  and  after 
throwing  his  arms  about  his  head  in  a  series  of  extraordi- 
nary gesticulations  retreated  to  his  own  quarters.  As  it 
happened,  that  very  instant  was  the  conclusion  of  totality 
The  Indians  beheld  the  glorious  orb  of  day  once  more 
peep  forth,  and  it  was  unanimously  voted  that  the  timely 
discharge  of  that  pistol  was  the  only  thing  that  drove 
away  the  shadow  and  saved  them  from  the  public  incon- 
venience that  would  have  certainly  resulted  from  the  en- 
tire extinction  of  the  Sun." 

A  certain  Mr.  F.  Kerigan,  in  a  book  published  in  1844, 
made  the  following  remarks  on  ancient  Jewish  ideas  re- 
specting eclipses : — 

"  The  Israelites,  like  their  benighted  neighbours,  es- 
teemed an  eclipse  of  either  luminary  as  a  supernatural  and 
inauspicious  omen,  which  filled  them  with  the  most  gloomy 
and  fearful  apprehensions  :  as  may  fairly  be  deduced  from 
the  8th  chapter  of  Ezekiel,  v.  15:  '  Then  he  brought  me 
to  the  door  of  the  Lord's  House,  which  was  towards  the 
N. ;  and,  behold  there  sat  women  weeping  for  Tammuz.' 
Now  Tammuz  is  the  name  under  which  Adonis  was  known 
in  Palestine :  he  was  the  favourite  of  Venus,  or  Astarte, 
the  principal  goddess  of  the  Philistines  and  Phoenicians. 
Being  killed  by  a  wild  boar,  the  prevailing  superstition  of 
the  age  induced  the  uninformed  multitude  to  believe 
that  when  the  Moon  was  eclipsed,  it  was  in  compliment 
to  their  beloved  goddess  Venus  or  Astarte,  who,  concealed 
behind  the  full  Moon,  sat  weeping  under  a  dark  veil  for  the 
loss  of  her  beloved  Tammuz  or  Adonis."  * 

The  African  travellers,  R.  and  J.  Lander,  have  given  t 

*  A  Practical  Treatise  on  Eclipses,  p.  2. 

t  Journal  of  an  Expedition  to  Explore  the  A'iger,  vol.  i,  p.  366 

13 


Ip4  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

a  graphic  account  of  what  took  place  on  the  occasion  of 
the  eclipse  of  the  Moon  of  Sept.  2,  1830,  as  witnessed  by 
themselves  : — "  The  earlier  part  of  the  evening  had  been 
mild,  serene,  and  remarkably  pleasant.  The  Moon  had 
arisen  with  uncommon  lustre,  and  being  at  the  full,  her  ap- 
pearance was  extremely  delightful.  It  was  the  conclusion 
of  the  holidays,  and  many  of  the  people  were  enjoying  the 
delicious  coolness  of  a  serene  night,  and  resting  from  the 
laborious  exertions  of  the  day ;  but  when  the  Moon  be- 
came gradually  obscured,  fear  overcame  every  one.  As 
the  eclipse  increased  they  became  more  terrified.  All  ran 
in  great  distress  to  inform  their  sovereign  of  the  circum- 
stance, for  there  was  not  a  single  cloud  to  cause  so  deep 
a  shadow,  and  they  could  not  comprehend  the  nature  or 
meaning  of  an  eclipse.  .  .  .  Groups  of  men  were  blowing 
on  trumpets,  which  produced  a  harsh  and  discordant 
sound  ;  some  were  employed  in  beating  old  drums,  others 
again  were  blowing  on  bullocks'  horns.  .  .  .  The  dimin- 
ished light,  when  the  eclipse  was  complete,  was  just  suffi- 
cient for  us  to  distinguish  the  various  groups  of  people, 
and  contributed  in  no  small  degree  to  render  the  scene 
more  imposing.  If  a  European,  a  stranger  to  Africa,  had 
been  placed  on  a  sudden  in  the  midst  of  the  terror-struck 
people,  he  would  have  imagined  himself  to  be  among  a 
legion  of  demons,  holding  a  revel  over  a  fallen  spirit." 


CHAPTER   XIX. 

ECLIPSES   IN   SHAKESPEARE  AND   THE  POETS. 

THE  sound  of  these  words  may  be  large  but  facts  do 
not  bear  out  the  theory,  for  eclipses  do  not  appear  to  have 
captivated  our  great  poets  to  anything  like  the  extent  that 
Moon,  Stars,  and  Comets  have  done. 


ECLIPSES   IN   SHAKESPEARE  AND   THE   POETS.    195 

Shakespeare  has  a  few  allusions  to  eclipses,  but  they 
are  not  of  prime  importance.  In  Macbeth  we  find  : — 

"  And  slips  of  yew 
Shivered  in  the  Moon's  eclipse." 

— Act  iv.  sc.  i. 

the  precise  meaning  of  which  is  not  very  obvious.  "  Shiv- 
ered "  of  course  means  divided  into  pieces,  but  the  idea 
intended  is  obscure. 

The  next  quotation  is  more  comprehensive  and  reflects 
more  plainly  the  current  of  thought  prevalent  in  Shake- 
speare's day,  albeit  here  again  the  word  "  eclipse  "  will  be 
found  to  stand  without  much  definite  connection  with  what 
goes  before.  However,  the  reader  shall  judge  for  himself : — 

"As,  stars  with  trains  of  fire  and  dews  of  blood 
Disasters  in  the  Sun  ;  and  the  moist  star, 
Upon  whose  influence  Neptune's  Empire  stands, 
Was  sick  almost  to  doomsday  with  eclipse." 

— Hamlet,  act.  i.  sc.  i. 

In  King  Lear  we  seem  to  come  upon  something  very 
definitely  historical,  but  I  am  not  able  to  say  what  it  is. 
The  Earl  of  Gloster  says  : — 

"  These  late  eclipses  of  the  Sun  and  Moon  portend  no  good 
to  us." 

With  this,  Edmund,  Gloster's  son,  apparently  agrees, 
for  he  exclaims  :— 

"  These  eclipses  do  portend  these  divisions." 

—Act  i.  sc.  2. 

In  Othello,  the  Moor  of  Venice  himself,  in  a  moment 
of  excitement,  says : — 

•'  O,  insupportable  !  O,  heavy  hour  ! 
Methinks  it  should  be  now  a  huge  eclipse 
Of  Sun  and  Moon,  and  that  the  affrighted  globe 
Should  yawn  at  alteration." 

—Act  v.  sc.  a. 


196  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

In  Antony  and  Cleopatra  we  find  Antony  expressing 
what  our  forefathers  so  often  thought  in  connection  with 
astronomical  matters : — 

"  Alack,  our  terrene  Moon  is  now  eclipsed ; 
And  it  portends  alone 
The  fall  of  Antony  !  " 

—Act  iii.  sc.  ii. 

Milton  has  an  allusion  to  an  eclipse  of  the  Sun  which 
posesses  a  two-fold  interest — intrinsic  and  extrinsic.  The 
former  feature  will  be  self-evident  when  the  passage  is 
read.  The  poet,  in  describing*  the  faded  splendour  of 
the  fallen  archangel,  compares  him  to  the  Sun  seen  under 
circumstances  which  have  temporarily  deprived  it  of  its 
normal  brilliancy  and  glory  : — 

"  As  when  the  Sun  new-risen 
Looks  through  the  horizontal  misty  air 
Shorn  of  his  beams,  or,  from  behind  the  Moon 
In  dim  eclipse,  disastrous  twilight  sheds 
On  half  the  nations,  and  with  fear  of  change 
Perplexes  Monarchs." 

It  has  been  well  said  by  Dr.  Orchard  t  that  "  this  pas- 
sage affords  us  an  example  of  the  sublimity  of  Milton's 
imagination  and  of  his  skill  in  adapting  the  grandest  phe- 
nomena of  nature  to  the  illustration  of  his  subject." 

What  I  alluded  to  in  saying  that  extrinsic  interest 
attached  to  this  quotation,  is  the  fact  that  these  lines 
might  have  caused  the  suppression  of  the  poem  as  a 
whole.  Mrs.  Todd  puts  the  matter  thus  : — "  Paradise 
Lost  was  begun  probably  in  1658,  although  not  finished 
until  1663,  nor  its  thorough  revision  completed  until  1665. 
The  censorship  still  existed,  and  Tomkyns  (one  of  the 
chaplains  through  whom  the  Archbishop  gave  or  refused 
license),  although  a  broader-minded  man  than  many  of 

*  Paradise  Lost,  Book  i.,  lines  594-9. 
f  The  Astronomy  of  M'tion,  p.  259. 


ECLIPSES   IN   SHAKESPEARE  AND   THE   POETS.   197 

his  day,  found  this  passage  especially  objectionable.  The 
poem  was  allowed  to  see  the  light  only  through  the  in- 
terposition of  a  friend  of  Milton.  Upon  such  slender 
chances  may  hang  the  life  of  an  incomparable  work  of 
art !  But  it  is  easy  to  see  that  in  the  turbulent  days 
when  Charles  the  Second  had  returned  to  power,  after 
the  death  of  Cromwell,  these  lines  should  have  been 
deemed  dangerously  suggestive,  in  imputing  to  monarchs 
'  perplexity  '  and  '  fear  of  change.'  " 

Other  allusions  to  eclipses  by  Milton  will  be  found  as 
follows  : — 

"  Through  the  air  she  comes, 
Lur'd  with  the  smell  of  infant  blood,  to  dance 
With  Lapland  witches,  while  the  labouring  Moon 
Eclipses  at  their  charms." 

—Paradise  Lost,  Bk.  ii.  lines  663-^. 

"  So  saying,  he  dismiss'd  them  ;  they  with  speed 
Their  course  through  thickest  constellation  held, 
Spreading  their  bane  ;  the  blasted  stars  look'd  wan, 
And  planets,  planet-struck,  real  eclipse, 
Then  suffer'd." 

—Paradise  Lost,  Bk.  x.  lines  410-14. 


"  O  dark,  dark,  dark,  amid  the  blaze  of  Noon, 
Irrecoverably  dark,  total  eclipse, 
Without  all  hope  of  day  !  " 

— Samson  Agonistes,  lines  80-2. 

«« It  was  that  fatal  and  perfidious  bark, 
Built  in  th'  eclipse,  and  rigg'd  with  curses  dark, 
That  sunk  so  low  that  sacred  heart  of  thine." 

— Lycidas,  lines  100-2. 

Pope,  in  the  following  lines,  may  be  presumed  to  mean 
that  the  covering  up  of  the  Sun  by  the  Moon,  during  a 
total  eclipse,  results  in  the  Moon  becoming  visible,  at  the 
cost  of  the  Sun's  disappearance  :— 


198  THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

"  For  Envy'd  wit,  like  Sol  eclips'd,  makes  known 
Th'  opposing  body's  grossness,  not  its  own." 

— Essay  on  Criticism,  lines  469-70. 

I  have  not  attempted  to  pursue  this  matter  through 
the  pages  of  our  modern  poets,  but  it  is  not  unlikely  that 
Scott  and  Tennyson  (especially)  would  have  something  on 
the  subject  of  eclipses. 


CHAPTER   XX. 

BRIEF  HINTS  TO  OBSERVERS  OF  ECLIPSES  OF 
THE  SUN. 

A  FEW  words  (they  must  be  few  for  lack  of  space)  may 
usefully  be  added,  by  way  of  advice,  to  persons  proposing 
to  choose  a  suitable  locality  at  which  to  station  themselves 
for  viewing  a  total  eclipse  of  the  Sun.  To  begin  with,  of 
course  they  ought  to  get  as  close  as  possible  to  the  cen- 
tral line,  say  within  10  or  20  miles  at  the  most ;  this  mat- 
ter settled,  the  next  important  point  is  to  find  out  where 
the  duration  of  the  totality  will  be  longest,  coupled  with 
the  Sun  at  its  maximum  elevation  above  the  horizon  (to 
escape  the  influence  of  mists  and  fogs).  No  advice, 
properly  so-called,  can  be  given  on  these  points,  because 
they  depend  on  the  special  circumstances  of  every  eclipse, 
and  must  be  ascertained  ad  hoc  from  the  Nautical  Al- 
manac. 

In  anticipation  of  a  forthcoming  eclipse,  it  is  very  im- 
portant to  know  beforehand  the  probabilities  of  weather. 
If  the  locus  in  quo  of  an  expected  eclipse  is  in  a  civilised 
country,  there  will  generally  not  be  much  difficulty  in 
obtaining  a  certain  amount  of  information  as  to  this  6  or 
12  months  in  advance.  But  inasmuch  as  total  eclipses  of 
the  Sun,  and  often  the  best  of  them,  are  visible  only  in 


HINTS   TO   OBSERVERS  OF   SUN   ECLIPSES.     199 

uncivilised  countries  or  over  trackless  wastes,  the  problem 
becomes  a  complicated  and  anxious  one.  In  such  cases 
it  is  exceedingly  desirable,  where  competent  observers 
(including  money)  are  available,  that  preliminary  notes  of 
weather  should  be  made  for  a  year  or  even  two  years  in 
advance.  There  is  in  one  sense  no  difficulty  as  to  this, 
for  all  the  mathematical  local  elements  of  every  eclipse 
are  always  made  public  three  or  four  years  in  advance 
through  the  pages  of  books  like  the  Nautical  Almanac, 
the  Connaissance  des  Temps,  the  Berliner  fahrbuch,  &c. 
One  difficulty  always  confronts  every  eclipse  expedition. 
If  an  out-of-the-way  part  of  the  world  has  to  be  visited, 
accessible  by  sea,  transport  from  England,  say,  to  the 
foreign  shore  is  not  usually  a  matter  of  difficulty,  because 
Government  ships  are  often  placed  at  the  disposal  of 
astronomers.  But  the  gravest  difficulties  often  have  to 
be  faced  after  the  arrival  at  the  foreign  shore,  and  for 
this  reason.  Every  sea  coast  is,  as  a  general  rule  applicable 
to  the  whole  world,  bad  for  astronomical  observations. 
The  problem  then  which  has  to  be  solved  is,  how  best  to 
get  away  from  the  coast  inland  to  a  high  hill,  and  to  find 
the  means  of  transporting  thither  heavy  packing-cases  of 
instruments,  personal  luggage,  creature  comforts,  and,  if 
needs  be,  tents  and  the  other  accessories  of  camp  life. 
Let  not  the  reader  of  either  sex  take  fright  at  the  idea  of 
sleeping  under  a  tent.  I  speak  with  considerable  expe- 
rience when  I  say  that,  given  fine  or  fairly  fine  weather, 
nothing  is  more  enjoyable  in  a  temperate  climate.  Under 
the  term  "  creature  comforts "  I  mean  such  things  as 
tinned  soups  and  preserved  provisions  which  nowadays 
can  so  easily  be  purchased  everywhere  in  England,  and 
of  such  good  quality.  I  would  recommend  these  being 
taken  even  when  the  eclipse  traveller  expects  to  be  lodged 
in  the  dwelling-places  of  civilised  nations.  Of  course,  if 
in  order  to  see  his  eclipse  he  has  to  50  into  the  wilds  of 


200  THE   STORY  OF   ECLIPSES. 

America,  Asia,  or  Africa,  he  must  start  fully  equipped 
with  all  those  personal  impedimenta  which  will  be  found 
scheduled  in  the  books  mentioned  in  the  footnote. 


CHAPTER   XXI. 

TRANSITS  AND   OCCULTATIONS. 

No  book  professing  to  deal  with  eclipses  would  be 
complete  without  a  few  words  of  mention  of  "transits" 
and  "  occultations."  A  transit  is  the  passing  of  a  primary 
planet  across  the  Sun,  or  of  a  secondary  planet  (i.e.  satel- 
lite) across  its  primary,  whilst  an  occultation  is  the  con- 
cealment of  a  star  by  the  Moon,  or  of  a  secondary  planet 
(i.e.  satellite)  by  its  primary.  A  little  thought  given  to 
this  definition  will  make  it  clear  that  a  transit  is  essen- 
tially the  same  in  principle  as  an  eclipse  of  the  Sun  by 
the  Moon — one  body  comes  in  front  of  another,  and  the 
former  conceals  in  succession  parts  of  the  latter. 

Practically  the  word  "transit"  in  this  connection  is 
more  especially  applied  to  passages  of  the  inferior  planets, 
Mercury  and  Venus,  across  the  Sun,  or  of  the  satellites  of 
Jupiter  across  the  disc  of  Jupiter,  whilst  the  word  "  occul- 
tation "  more  particularly  calls  to  mind  the  concealment 
of  a  star  (apparently  a  little  body)  by  the  Moon  (appar- 
ently a  big  body)  or  of  a  satellite  of  Jupiter  (a  little  body) 
by  Jupiter  (a  big  body),  the  star  and  the  satellite  in  each 
respective  case  passing  behind  the  occulting  body  and 
being  concealed  for  a  shorter  or  longer  time.  Commonly 
the  occulted  body  will  remain  hidden  for  an  hour  or  two, 

*  The  Tourists'  Pocket-Book,  is.  (Philip)  ;  F.  Gallon's  Art  of 
Travel,  73.  6d.  (Murray)  ;  Royal  Geographical  Society's  Hints  to 
Travellers,  55.  (R.  G.  S.,  Savile  Row),  &c. 


TRANSITS  AND  OCCUPATIONS.  20 1 

more  or  less.  In  the  case  of  Jupiter  the  satellites  of  that 
planet  may  also,  on  occasions,  be  seen  to  undergo  eclipse 
in  the  shadow  cast  by  Jupiter  itself.  An  eclipse  of  a 
Jovian  satellite  is  therefore  in  every  way  in  principle  the 
same  as  an  eclipse  of  the  Moon,  caused,  as  we  know,  by 
the  moon  passing  for  a  short  lime  into  the  dark  shadow 
cast  by  the  Earth,  The  conditions  just  laid  down  in  re- 
spect of  Jupiter  and  its  satellites  also  find  a  counterpart 
FIG.  15.  FIG.  16. 


FIGS.  15,  16.— Occultation  of  Jupiter,  Aug.  7,  1889  (Immersion). 


in  the  case  of  the  satellites  of  Saturn,  but  whilst  these 
phenomena  are  incessantly  occurring  and  visible  in  the 
case  of  Jupiter,  they  are  exceedingly  rare  in  the  case  of 
Saturn  owing  to  its  greater  distance  and  the  difficulty  of 
seeing  most  of  its  satellites  because  of  their  small  apparent 
size. 

Having  regard  to  the  circumstances  that  transits  of 
Mercury  and  Venus  only  happen  at  intervals  of  many 
years,  it  is  not  worth  while  for  the  purposes  of  this  work 
to  devote  any  great  amount  of  space  to  them.  In  point 
of  fact,  whilst  the  next  three  transits  of  Mercury  are  as 
remote  as  1907,  1914,  and  1924,  there  will  be  no  transit  of 
Venus  at  all  during  the  aoth  century ;  not  another  indeed 
until  A.D.  2004. 

From  the  standpoint  of  an  amateur  astronomer  the 
various  phenomena  which  attend  the  movements  of  the 
satellites  of  Jupiter,  constitute  an  endless  variety  of  inter- 


THE   STORY  OF   ECLIPSES. 


esting  scenes,  which  are  the  more  deserving  of  attention 
in  that  they  can  be  followed  with  the  aid  of  a  telescope 
of  very  moderate  size  and  capabilities.* 

Occultations  of  planets  and  stars  by  the  Moon  may 
also  be  recommended  to  the  notice  of  the  owners  of  small 
telescopes  as  events  which  are  constantly  happening  and 
FIG.  17.  FIG.  18. 


FlGS.  17,  18. — Occultation  of  Jupiter,  Aug.  7,  1889  (Emersion). 
which  may  be  readily  observed.  The  Moon  being  rapidly 
in  motion  it  will  happen  in  point  of  fact  that  stars  are  oc- 
culted by  it,  one  may  say  every  day,  but  of  course  the 
Moon's  light  entirely  blots  out  the  smaller  stars  and  onlj 
those  as  large  as,  say,  about  the  5th  magnitude,  are  as  a 
rule  worth  trying  to  see  in  this  connection.  A  table  of 
the  occultations  of  such  stars,  copied  from  the  Nautical 
Almanac,  will  be  found  in  such  almanacs  as  Whitakers 
and  the  British*  If  such  a  table  is  consulted  it  will  be 
found  that  never  does  a  lunation  pass  without  a  few  stars 
being  noted  as  undergoing  occultation,  and  now  and  then 
a  planet.  An  occultation  of  a  planet  is  obviously  still 
more  interesting  than  that  of  a  star. 

From  the  epoch  of  New  to  Full  Moon  the  Moon  moves 
with  its  dark  edge  foremost ;  from  the  epoch  of  Full  to 
New  with  its  illuminated  edge  foremost.  During  there- 
fore the  first  half  of  a  lunation  the  objects  occulted  disap- 
pear at  the  dark  edge  and  reappear  at  the  illuminated 

*  For  details  as  to  these  matters,  see  my  Handbook  of  Astron- 
omy, 4th  ed.,  vol.  i.  pp.  186-196. 


TRANSITS  AND  OCCULTATIONS.  203 

edge,  during  the  second  half  of  a  lunation  things  are  -vice 
•versa.  The  most  interesting  time  for  watching  occultations 
is  with  a  young  Moon  no  more  than,  say,  from  2  to  6  days 
old,  because  under  such  circumstances  the  star  occulted 
is  suddenly  extinguished  at  a  point  in  the  sky  where  there 
seems  nothing  to  interfere  with  it. 


INDEX. 


%*  The  Eclipses  referred  to  in  the  Chapters  on  History  (VIII-XIII)  ; 
not,  as  regards  dates,  dealt  with  in  this  Index. 


A. 

Boillot,  115. 

Bosanquet,  J.  W.,  78,  82,  87. 

Aberdour,  Lord,  136. 
Agathocles,  The  Eclipse  of,  103. 

C. 

Ahaz,  Dial  of,  77,  82,  87. 

Airy,  Sir  G.  B..  42,  64,  71,  72,  76,  94, 

Calvisjus,  113,  116,  123,  187. 

95,  97,  98,  i°4.  I05.  i°6,  123,  140, 

Carlmi,  140. 

Almanac,  British,  186. 

Carrington,  R.  C.,  52. 
Cassini,  135. 

Almanac,  Nautical,    23,   31,   199, 

Caussin,  119. 

202 

Cedrenus,  177. 

Ammianus  Marcellinus,  114. 

Celoria,  Prof.,  128. 

Anglo-Saxon    Chronicle,   116,  117, 

121,     122,     124,     126,     174,     175,     176, 

Chinese  Eclipses  of  the  Sun,  65. 
of  the  Moon.  168. 

177,    178. 

Chromosphere,  52. 

Annaies  Fuldenses,  122,  176. 

Chronicon  Scotorum,  122. 

Annular  Eclipses  of  the  Sun,  15. 
Apollonius  of  Tyana,  in. 
Arabian  Records,  113,  118. 

Churton.  Archdeacon,  178. 
Cicero,  02,  93,  101. 
Classical    History,    Eclipses    men- 

Arago, 107,  140. 

tioned  in,  92. 

Archilochus,  93. 

Clavius,  55,  129,  130. 

Aristophanes,  169. 

Columbus,  179. 

Ascending  Node,  17. 
Asser,  122. 

Confucius,  69. 
Conjunction  of  the  Moon,  27. 
Copper  colour  of  Moon  in   Lunar 
Eclipses,  163. 

Corona,  49,  53,  90,  in,  122,  134,  135, 

Baily,  F.,  49,  96,  104,  140. 

137,  .'43,  '44- 

"  Baily's  Beads,     49,  56,  140. 
Barker,  Sir  R.,  87. 
Bede,  174. 

Coromum,  59. 
Crabtree.W     182. 
Crucifixion,  The  darkness  at,  no. 

Beer,  184. 

Bible,  Eclipses  mentioned  in,  74. 

D. 

Biot   E.,  69. 
"Black1'   Eclipses  of    the    Moon, 
160. 

Delambre,  6q. 
De  La  Rue,  W.,  143. 

Blackness  of  the  Moon  during  Solar 
Eclipses,  38- 
Blake,  42- 

De  Louville,  135. 
Descending  Node,  17. 
Dial  of  Ahaz,  77,  82,  87. 

205 


206 


THE   STORY   OF   ECLIPSES. 


Digit  explained.  26. 
Diodorus  Siculus,  103. 

Hinckes,  Dr.,  76. 
Hind,  J.  R.,  34,  69,  77,  98,  99,  106, 

Diogenes  Laertius,  81. 
Dion  Cassius,  109,  in. 

107,  118,   121,   122,  125,  126,  129, 
131,  132,  142,  172,  173. 

Draconic  Month,  18. 
Dreyer,  J.  L.  £.,  187. 
Du  Sejour,  33,  34. 

Hitzig,  75. 
Homer's  Iliad  quoted,  107. 
Homer's  Odyssey  quoted,  80,  108. 
Huggins,  Sir  W.,  112. 
Humboldt,  A.  von,  114,  121,  184. 

E. 

Hunter,  W.,  87. 

Earthquakes  and  Eclipses,  64. 

Earth  shine,  52. 
Eclipsareon,  Ferguson's,  188. 
Eclipse,  Derivation  of  the  word,  n. 

I. 

Ideler,  70. 

,  number  of  in  a  year,  12. 

J- 

of  the  Moon,  10. 
of  the  Sun,  10. 
,  Theory  of,  14. 
Eclipse  of  the  Sun  of  May  28,  1900, 

Janssen,  144. 
Jesuit    Missionaries  m   China,  69, 

Johnson,   Rev.   S.  J.,  34,  69,  109, 

9i  3S>  57i  61,  158. 
Enmus,  101. 

in,  113,  115,   "7,   "i,  "3.   I28> 
172,  178,  183,  189. 

Jones,  Capt.F.,  96. 

r  • 

Josephus,  172. 

Ferguson,  J.,  183,  188. 
Ferrer,  Don  J.,  139. 
Flamsteed,  f.,  132,  182. 
Florence  of  Worcester,  122. 

Justin,  103. 
K. 
Kepler,  55,  130,  131,  181,  182,  187. 

Forster,  163. 
Freeman,  Prof.  E.  A.,  125. 

Kerigan,  F.,  193. 
Kirchoff,  59. 

Full  Moon,  12. 

L. 

G. 

Gassendi,  P.,  182,  188. 

Lalande,  J.  De,  190. 
Lander,  R.  and  J.,  193. 

Gauhil,  69- 
Gemma  Frisius,  129. 
Uilliss,  Lieut.  J.  M.,  143. 
Ginzel,  64,  112. 
Glaber,  123,  177. 
Glycas,  79. 
Grant,  R.,  112. 
Graydon,  148. 
Gregorius  Turonensis,  115. 

Langley,  Prof.,  145. 
Lardner,  D.,  His  Hand-book  of  As- 
tronomy cited,  12. 
Lassell,  W.,  142. 
Layard,  Sir  A.  H.,  96. 
Leon  of  Corfu,  122. 
Le  Verrier's  Solar  Tables,  77. 
Lewis,  Sir  G.  C.,  94. 
Liais,  E.,  39. 
Limits,  Lunar  Ecliptic,  161. 

jj 

Lingard,  Dr.,  128. 

Haliey',  E.,'  126,  133. 
Hansen's    Lunar    Tables,   77,   101, 

Livy,  106,  171. 
Lockyer,  Sir  N.,  151. 
Lynn,  W.  T.,  98,  in. 

102,  106. 

M. 

Helium,  59. 
Helps,  Sir  A.,  179. 

Macartney,  Lord,  his  Embassy  to 

Herodotus,  93,  97,  99. 
Herschel,  Sir  J.,  184. 

China,  190. 
Maclaurin,  129,  130,  135. 

Herschel.  Sir  W.,  138. 
Hevelius,  182. 

Madler,  184. 
Magnitude  of  an  Eclipse,  26. 

Hezekiah,  King  of  Judah,  77. 

Main,  Rev.  R.,  75- 

INDEX. 


207 


Maraldi,  135. 
Matthew  Paris,  178. 
Maunder,  E.  W.,  89,  go. 
Meteorological    effects    of    a    solar 
eclipse,  46,  142. 
Millosevich,  93. 
Milton,  J.,  196. 
Moon,  Eclipses  of,  158. 

R. 

Rawlinson,  Sir  H.  C.,  76,  95. 
Red  Flames,  51,  133,  1^6,  143. 
Ricciolus,  I.  B.,  1  86,  188. 
Roger  of  Wendover,  127,  178. 
Roger  de  Hoveden,  174. 
Rothmann,  R.  W.,  67. 
Riimker,  42. 

N. 

Russell,  S.  M.,  67,  68,  168,  191. 

Nautical   Almanac,   23,    31,    199, 

S. 

Newcomb,   S.,    102,    108,    119,   123, 

Santini,  140. 
"  Saros,"  The,  13,  17,  95,  134. 

146 
Newcomb,     S.,     His     Astronomy 

Schnurrer,  121. 
Schuster,  146. 

cited,  24. 
New  Moon,  12. 

Season  of  Eclipses,  26. 

Newton,  Sir  I.,  168. 

Shadow  Bands,  40. 

Nicias,  169. 
Nineveh  Tablets,  76. 
Nodes,  16,  17.  18,  27. 

Shadow  of  Moon  on  Earth,  32,  36^ 
43,  63 
Shakespeare,  W.,  194. 

Smith,  J.  D.,  42. 

O. 

Smyth,  Admirnl  W.  H.,  184. 
Short,  J.,  136. 

Occultations,  10,  12,  200,  202. 
Ockley,  S.,  118. 
Oltmanns,  196. 

Suetonius,  107. 
Snooke,  W.  D.,  189 
Spain,   Eclipse  of   1900  visible  in, 

Oppolzer,  T.  Von,  His  Canon  cited, 

Opposition  of  the  Moon,  27. 
Orchard,  Dr.,  196. 

10,  57,  158. 
Spots  on  the  Sun,  59,  61. 
Stannyan,  Capt.,  52,  133. 
Staunton,  Sir  G.,  190. 
Stockwell,  J.  N.,  112,  172,  189. 
Stone,  E.  J.,  164. 
"  Stiklastad,"  "  Eclipse  of,"  123. 

. 

Struve.  O.,  140. 

Partial  Eclipses  of  the  Sun,  16. 
Pekin,  Observatory  at,  81. 

Struycic,  N.,  188. 
Stukeley,  Dr.  W.,  134,  137. 

Penumbra  in  Lunar  Eclipses,  159. 

Pepys,  S.,  His  Diary  cited,  132. 

T. 

Perry,  S.  J.,  150,  164. 

Philostorgius,  114. 
Philostratus,  in. 
Pickering,  E.  H.,  156. 
Pingre,  186. 

Tacitus,  172. 
Telegraph,  Electric,  and  Eclipses, 

"Thales,"   "Eclipse    of,"    88,  93, 

Planets,  Primary,  n. 
,  Secondary,  n. 
,  Visibility  of,  during  Eclipses, 

Thirl  wall,  Bishop,  99. 
Thucydides,  99,  100. 
Tibullus,  107. 

Pliny,  107,  169,  173,  181. 

Todd,    Mrs.     D.     T.,    her     Total 

Plutarch,   Lives,   92,  98,   100,   102, 

Eclipses  cited,  23,  23,  43,  48,  $6, 

107,  H2,  169,  170. 
Polybius,  170. 
Pope,  A.,  94,  197. 
Powell,  Sir  G.  B.,  151. 

62,  116,  125,  147,  155,  196,  199. 
Totality,  Approach  of,  43. 
,  Darkness  of,  46. 
Transits,  10,  12,  200. 

Prominences,  51. 
Pusey,  Dr.  E.  B.,  75,  76. 

Trithenius,  173. 
Trouvelot,  90. 

208 


THE  STORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 


Tycho  Brahe,  116,  122,  128,  130,  181, 
187. 

William  of  Malmesbury,  12 
Williams   J.,  7°   71,  73,  74- 
Wolcott,  Miss  K.  E.,  90. 

U. 

Wyberd,  Dr.,  132. 

Ulloa,  Don  A.,  55,  137,  152- 
Usher,  Archbishop,  75. 

X. 

V. 

Xenophon,  96,  97,  102. 

Valz,  140. 

Y. 

W. 

Young,  Prof.,  151. 

WalHs,  Dr.,  132. 

Z. 

Wareentin,  183. 
Wesley,  W.  H.,  57. 

Zech,  io». 

(6) 


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